He was responding  to a question raised by JVP MP Nalinda Jayatissa. MP Nalinda Jayatissa questioned why the government issued an ordinary passport to a person such as Udayanga Weeratunga who is accused for various crimes including a murder.

The MP said that former ambassador Weeratunga was the owner of a small Sri Lankan restaurant in Kiev, the Ukraine Capital before he became the Sri Lankan Ambassador in Russia. He is a person who is accused for a MiG deal and also for murdering a officer worked at the Russian embassy.

He is also accused by the Ukrainian government for supplying arms to the separatist rebels in Ukraine.

The Minister said that the External Affairs Ministry has made a recommendation to the Controller General of Immigration and Emigration to issue ordinary passports for them.

He said that the diplomatic passport which had been issued to Udayanga Weeratuga and his wife had been cancelled since March 06, 2015 and ordinary passports issued to them on March 06, 2015. But Udayanga Weeratunga didn’t come to Sri Lanka to get these passports and his wife collected the passports on March 09, 2016.

“The Controller General of Immigration and Emigration has the authority to cancel the diplomatic passports. So the Government did it. The government has also communicated all the information to the Interpol,” he said.

(Daily News)