Rajapaksa claims questioning over journalist abduction is part of ‘witch hunt’
August 17, 2018 11:31 pm
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he was the victim of a “witch hunt” as investigators questioned him for the first time Friday over the abduction of a journalist.
He was interviewed by five detectives over the 2008 kidnapping and torture of journalist Keith Noyahr.
Rajapaksa was questioned after parliamentary speaker Karu Jayasuriya told police he telephoned the president in 2008 to ask for help after Noyahr was abducted -- a claim the former president has disputed.
“I don’t remember such a telephone conversation,” Rajapaksa told reporters after he was questioned at his official residence at Wijerama Mawatha in Colombo.
He said he was not being directly accused of involvement in the abduction, but his government at the time was being smeared.
“This questioning is part of mounting pressure on me, to corner me and to hurt me,” he said.
“There is a political motive behind this. This is a political witch hunt, a vendetta.”
Source: AFP
-Agencies
