President Maithripala Sirisena has stated that Sri Lankan media reports – quoting foreign media – on the extradition former Governor of the Central Bank Arjun Mahendran cannot be accepted as an official statement by the government of Singapore.

President Sirisena’s Office stated this issuing a statement today (21).

The full statement issued by the President’s Media Division is as follows:

“Certain Sri Lankan media, quoting a media reports published in Singapore regarding an alleged statement made by a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore, have published is a totally baseless report.

Those media reports have stated that, according to the extradition laws of Singapore, the Government of Sri Lanka has not provided any documents requesting for deportation of a person from that country.

A spokesperson for the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made such a statement, in connection with the President Sirisena’s statement about the official request he made from Prime Minister of Singapore  Hon. Lee Hsien Loong, to extradite Mr. Arjun  Mahendran, who is wanted for the Central Bank bond issue, and who is alleged to live in Singapore. Nevertheless, the Government of Singapore has not made any official statement in this regard to the relevant officials of the Sri Lankan government.  

The Government of Sri Lanka had made an official request on May 28, 2018 through the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence at diplomatic level to extradite Mr. Arjun Mahendran to Sri Lanka. Subsequently, the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed the relevant Sri Lankan authorities, including the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, that the attention of the Attorney-General of Singapore has already been drawn regarding the request made by Sri Lanka.

The Extradition Law applicable to Singapore is the Extradition Act enforced in that country. Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation, by its submission 8266/2018-B, to the Fort Magistrate states that Mr. Arjun Mahendran has committed an offence that falls within offence no 18 in the section 2 of the Extradition Act of Singapore.

Based on that report the INTERPOL has issued a red notice on April 19, 2018, and the said Red Notice has also been attached to the extradition request made from the Singapore government.  

During the recent official visit made by President Maithripala Sirisena, the President made a request to extradite Mr. Arjun Mahendran to Sri Lanka based on that foundation.  

Accordingly, by now the government of Sri Lanka has provided the core information to Singapore government to extradite Mr. Arjun Mahendran, and it has also been requested, on that basis, a warrant be issued against him through the officials of the government of Singapore.

The Attorney-General of Singapore has informed the Sri Lankan counterpart through the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry to further explain the accusations leveled against Mr. Arjun Mahendran and, at present, the Sri Lankan Attorney-General is preparing a detailed report to be submited to Singapore according to the recent letter received from them.

The opinion of our government is that we cannot accept the statements published in the country quoting Singapore media reports based on a statement made by a spokesperson for the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs in this regard, in any way, as the official statement of the Government of Singapore.”