Court rejects Gota’s objections on Avant Garde case

The Colombo Magistrate court yesterday rejected the preliminary objections raised by Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to the Avant Garde floating armoury case.

Colombo Chief Magistrate Lal Ranasinghe Bandara rejected the defendant’s request to release him and the other defendants of the case filed by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption and ordered the next hearing to be fixed on 26 February and 26 March. The Chief Magistrate also ordered to hand over the charge sheets containing 19 charges to the defendants.

The Bribery Commission on 01 September 2016 filed charges at the Colombo Magistrate’s Court against Chairman of the controversial Avant Garde Maritime Services Ltd Nissanka Senadhipathi and seven others including the Former Defence Secretary and three Former Navy Commanders Somathilaka Dissanayake, Jayanath Colombage and Jayantha Perera.

The defendants are accused of causing a financial loss to the tune of Rs. 11.4 billion to the Government by paving the way for the operation of a floating armoury by the Avant Garde Maritime Services.

Chief Magistrate Lal Ranasinghe Bandara ordered the case to be proceeded without the second defendant, Former Additional Secretary of the Defence Ministry Sujatha Damayanthi.