{"id":2053,"date":"2026-06-01T12:40:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/?p=2053"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:40:18","slug":"ministerial-consultative-committee-approves-order-on-sri-lanka-maldives-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/2026\/06\/01\/ministerial-consultative-committee-approves-order-on-sri-lanka-maldives-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministerial Consultative Committee Approves Order on Sri Lanka\u2013Maldives Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>Ministerial Consultative Committee on Justice and National Integration<\/strong> has approved an order issued by the Ministry of Justice and National Integration concerning an agreement signed between the <strong>Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka<\/strong> and the <strong>Government of the Republic of Maldives<\/strong> in July 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The approval was granted during a recent meeting of the committee chaired by <strong>Harshana Nanayakkara<\/strong>, Minister of Justice and National Integration.<\/p>\n<p>The order, issued under the <strong>Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act No. 25 of 2002<\/strong>, was published in Extraordinary Gazette No. 2470\/04 dated 5 January 2026 and was presented to Parliament on 19 May 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement establishes a framework for mutual legal assistance and cooperation between Sri Lanka and the Maldives in criminal matters. It enables both countries to provide judicial support and collaborate on investigations and prosecutions involving criminal activities.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Gazette notification, the agreement is intended to strengthen cooperation in preventing, investigating, prosecuting, and suppressing crimes, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Terrorism-related offences<\/li>\n<li>Terrorist financing<\/li>\n<li>Identification of proceeds and instruments of crime<\/li>\n<li>Freezing, confiscation, and forfeiture of assets linked to criminal activities<\/li>\n<li>Other forms of mutual legal assistance in criminal investigations and proceedings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>During the meeting, attention was also drawn to the significant number of vacancies within the judicial sector. Officials reported that <strong>2,647 vacancies<\/strong> currently exist due to the absence of recruitment since 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The committee instructed the relevant authorities to expedite recruitment procedures. Discussions also covered various shortcomings affecting courts, prisons, and the broader justice sector. The committee chairman directed officials to take prompt action to address these issues and implement practical solutions.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister <strong>Sunil Watagala<\/strong>, Members of Parliament, and officials from the Ministry of Justice and National Integration and its affiliated institutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ministerial Consultative Committee on Justice and National Integration has approved an order issued by the Ministry of Justice and National Integration concerning an agreement signed between the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the Government of the Republic of Maldives in July 2025. The approval was granted during a recent &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2056,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions\/2056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}