SL reinstates sacked minister amid govt tensions

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena on Tuesday reinstated his justice minister, who was sacked nine months ago for publicly criticising a billion-dollar deal to lease a loss-making harbour to China.

Former justice minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was sworn into cabinet with the higher education and culture portfolios, in a reshuffle prompted by the resignation of six ministers last month.

Sirisena’s office did not say why Rajapakshe was brought back into the fold despite his sacking last August. Rajapakshe had been forced out of the cabinet after criticising the controversial $1.1 billion lease of a loss-making deep sea port to China.

He was also accused by his own party of delaying the prosecution of former government figures accused of murder and corruption under former president Mahinda Rajapakse, who led the country through the conclusion of a decades-long civil war until his ouster in a 2015 poll.