Sri Lanka government doubts Swiss complaint over alleged abduction

The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry has expressed doubt over the veracity of the complaint lodged by the Swiss Embassy here on the alleged abduction of one of its local staffers.

"In light of the incontrovertible evidence presented by the law enforcement authorities to the mission, it was underlined that further investigations would need to be continued to ascertain the actual facts surrounding this allegation," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It said the Ambassador for Switzerland in Sri Lanka Hanspeter Mock was briefed on the results of the investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police.

"The ambassador was presented with clear evidence that the sequence of events and timeline of the alleged incident, as formally presented by the Swiss Mission on behalf of the alleged victim to the CID, did not in anyway correspond with the actual movements of the alleged victim on that date, as borne out by witness interviews and technical evidence, including Uber (private taxi service) records, CCTV footage, telephone records and the GPS data".

The employee stationed in the Swiss Embassy was reportedly abducted on Monday and was released after around two hours.

The government of Switzerland has lodged a strong protest on the incident and demanded the perpetrators be brought to book.