Sri Lankan CJ sacked: Rajapakse verifies impeachment vote

The move came despite mounting calls on the president to halt the impeachment.


Afp January 14, 2013
In this photograph taken on December 4, 2012, Sri Lanka s Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake prays outside The Supreme Court in Colombo. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

COLOMBO:


Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Sunday sacked the chief justice by ratifying a controversial parliamentary vote, defying international calls for restraint and plunging the country into a constitutional crisis.


Shirani Bandaranayake, the first woman to hold the office of top judge, had issued several decisions at odds with the government. Rajapakse dismissed her after a closed-door meeting with other judges on Saturday, according to a presidential spokesman.

The move came despite mounting calls on the president to halt the impeachment, which is seen by rights groups and Western nations as a blow to judicial independence in a country just emerging from decades of ethnic war.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14th, 2013.

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