The Final Nail – The Sunday Leader Apologizes To Gota
By Colombo Telegraph -November 21, 2012
A mere four months after Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa abused former Editor in Chief Frederica Jansz in obscene language the newspaper ran an apology to the bad tempered and foul mouthed Secretary who is also brother to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The Sunday Leader on November 18, published the following:We publish this apology with reference to the article published on Sunday 8th July 2012 under the caption ‘Gota Goes Berserk’.This article suggests that SriLankan Airlines had made arrangements to switch aircraft to carry a puppy dog from Zurich to Colombo at the behest of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa Secretary of Defense.
We unconditionally accept that such an inference will not survive scrutiny of the facts as presented before the Sri Lanka Press Council.
It has now been established that no such animal was carried by SriLankan Airlines from any point in its network to Colombo consigned to either Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa or to any member of his family. Hence the contents of the article were essentially both conjecture and hypothetical and not based on fact.
We unreservedly accept the assertion by Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, at that point in time when he responded to our story that neither the Department of Civil Aviation nor SriLankan Airlines was within the purview of the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development. We also unreservedly accept that he as Secretary of the Ministry cannot be held responsible for any actions taken or alleged to have been taken by Sri Lankan Airlines as impugned in the article under reference.
We apologize to Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa Secretary Ministry of Defense and Urban Development and to our readers for any misapprehensions caused in their minds as a result of that publication. We publish this apology to remove any lingering doubts in their minds as to any distortions, untruths and improprieties that the said article may have caused.”
The apology was carried after the newspaper was taken over by a government stooge in September this year.
Appalled with the trend The Sunday Leader has taken a close family member of the Wickrematunge family confided to Colombo Telegraph that Lasantha Wickrematunge “must be turning in his grave.”
Requesting anonymity the family member pointed out that it is Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was suing The Sunday Leader and Lasantha for 2 billion rupees. The cases were filed three months before Lasantha was murdered. Inside sources told Colombo Telegraph that Lasantha had been preparing to counter sue the Defense Secretary but was assassinated before he could do so.
In July this year, Frederica Jansz authored an article which was published in The Sunday Leader on Sunday the 8th. She reported that Defense Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa went berserk when contacted by The Sunday Leader to clarify and find out if he was aware that the management at SriLankan Airlines had taken a decision to change a wide bodied A340 scheduled to fly to Zurich on Friday July 13, to a smaller A330. The change was to be made so that a SriLankan airline pilot who is dating a niece of President Mahinda Rajapaksa could personally fly the aircraft that would carry a ‘puppy dog’ for Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa from Zurich.
‘The Sunday Leader’ had been told by senior airline pilots that 56 passengers would have had to be off loaded if the aircraft was changed.
The pilot concerned was Capt. Praveen Wijesinghe who, according to the article was dating Flight OfficerMadini Chandradasa, the niece of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
When asked, Gothabaya Rajapaksa while denying that he had any knowledge that CEO Kapila Chandrasena had ordered the change of aircraft from an A340 to an A330 as Capt. Wijeysinghe was not qualified to fly the bigger aircraft, admitted that Capt. Wijeysinghe would indeed be “passengering” on one sector so he could bring down the dog for his wife.
“Yes they are bringing a puppy – it is for my wife. There is nothing wrong with that. I have every right to bring not just a dog but an elephant on SriLankan if I so wish – I am paying for the cargo. I have every right to bring anything I want. This is not the first time – before this also they brought a dog for me…what is wrong – I am paying for the cargo I have every right.”
When pointed out that bringing the dog was not the issue – but a loss of revenue for the airline as an entire aircraft was to be replaced with a smaller bodied plane – resulting in the loss of 56 passengers, Rajapaksa turned abusive.
Using foul language he screamed at Jansz, “If you write one bloody word I will sue the writer and your newspaper – which I have already done – I am not afraid of the bloody courts – I will sue you and shut down your fucking newspaper.”
Rajapaksa never denied the contents of this article nor having had used foul language on Frederica. He went so far as to even tell her that ninety percent of the people in Sri Lanka would want to see her dead. “They hate you” he shrieked in a conversation with her that has since received worldwide condemnation.
The apology published in The Sunday Leader of November 18, carried a denial going so far as to even deny the fact that Rajapaksa was indeed attempting to fly down a puppy dog from Zurich. Following the publication of the story in The Sunday Leader of July 8th, SriLankan Airlines too never denied that a plane switch had indeed been planned in order to accommodate a pilot friend of Rajapaksa and that 56 passengers would have had to be off loaded as a result.
The conversation with Gotabaya Rajapaksa
Posted by Thavam
