Justice must also be seen to be done

On the 22nd of this month in a surprise move, officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) arrested former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, produced him before a Magistrate and later had the former ‘strongman’ leader remanded at the infamous Welikade jail.

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The Welikade jail, is best known for the organised massacre of Tamil political prisoners during ‘Black July’ in 1983. The massacre took place within the prison on two different days.

It was reported that the doors to the cells of Sinhalese prisoners had been left open by prison authorities to facilitate the dastardly deed.

During that dark period of our history, the former President was a Cabinet Minister in that government. Perhaps images of that massacre flooded his mind as he was led into the precincts of the prison.

Strangely enough, former President Wickremesinghe was again a Cabinet Minister during the 1988 - 1990 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) uprising and has been accused of involvement in incidents of torture during that time.

During that time (1988 — 1990), by coincidence our present President Dissanayake then a university student -- was being hunted by state and paramilitary forces.