(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –The Government having taken serious note of the alleged criminal incident concerning a locally recruited staff member of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo on Monday (25), has ordered a thorough investigation into this matter.
Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ravinatha Aryasinha together with the Secretary to the Defence Ministry Major General (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne and Officials met the Ambassador for Switzerland in Sri Lanka Hanspeter Mock and the Deputy Chief of Mission and briefed them on the results of the investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
While the Embassy had not presented the alleged victim to be interviewed by the Law Enforcement Authorities despite their request to do so, based on the information provided by the Swiss Mission on Friday (29), the investigation was nevertheless conducted, the State-owned Daily News reported.
The Ambassador was presented with clear evidence that the sequence of events and timeline of the alleged incident, as formally presented by the Swiss Mission on behalf of the alleged victim to the CID, did not in any way correspond with the actual movements of the alleged victim on that date, as borne out by witness interviews and technical evidence, including Uber records, CCTV (Closed-Circuit Television) footage, telephone records and the GPS (Global Positioning System) data.
In light of the incontrovertible evidence presented by the Law Enforcement Authorities to the Swiss Mission, it was underlined that further investigations would need to be continued to ascertain the actual facts surrounding this allegation, for which the alleged victim will have to be interviewed by the Law Enforcement Authorities. Given that the alleged victim had also claimed that she had sustained injuries during the alleged abduction, it was noted that she should be presented for a medical examination by a Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) in Sri Lanka, the Newspaper reported.
The Embassy has been requested to cooperate fully with the Government of Sri Lanka to establish the veracity of the claims relating to this alleged incident.
