Deshamanya Abdul Caffoor Mohamed Ameer, QC (1 November 1914 – May 1997) was

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n lawyer. He was the 32nd Attorney General of Ceylon. He was appointed in 1966, succeeding Douglas St. Clive Budd Jansze, and held the office until 1970. He was succeeded by Victor Tennekoon. Ameer attended

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

, gaining a MA and was called to the bar as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

from the Inner Temple. On his return to Ceylon, he was enrolled as an

advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. Different countries' legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, ...

in 1940. He joined the Attorney General's Department as a Temporary Additional Crown Counsel on 1 October 1947. On 1 March 1949 he was confirmed as a Crown Counsel. He was involved in leading the prosecution of Talduwe Somarama Thero in the trial of the

Bandaranaike assassination S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), was assassinated by the Buddhist priest Talduwe Somarama Thero on September 25, 1959, while meeting the public at his private residence, Tintagel, at Rosmead Place i ...

in 1960. He resigned in protest from the post of Deputy Solicitor General when George E. Chitty, QC of the unofficial bar was retained by the government to lead the prosecution against the appeals of the three convicts of the assassination in the Court of Criminal Appeal. After a successful stint in the unofficial bar, he was appointed by Dudley Senanayake's government to the post of Attorney General in 1966 following an alleged attempted coup d'état. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel and in December 1969 addressed the 681st Special Political Committee meeting at the 24th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on the Palestinian problem. He was conferred the national honour of the title of Deshamanya in 1991 the first-ever Independence Day National Honours list created in 1986. Former minister M. L. M. Aboosally was his brother-in-law.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ameer, Abdul Caffoor Mohamed Attorneys General of Ceylon Deshamanya 1914 births 1997 deaths 20th-century Sri Lankan people Sri Lankan Moor lawyers Sri Lankan barristers Alumni of Zahira College, Colombo Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Members of the Inner Temple Ceylonese Queen's Counsel