Court orders TV station to produce original Fonseka footage

A court yesterday ordered a private television station to produce the original footage of a speech made by former Army Commander and Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader Sarath Fonseka.

The Colombo High Court yesterday ordered Derana TV to produce the original footage of the speech made by Fonseka during his presidential election campaign at a rally in Ratnapura.

The relevant video footage is to be used as evidence in the controversial “white flag” case that was heard yesterday.

The court has taken one of the videos for observation when the prosecution had produced several videos containing speeches made by Fonseka that were telecast on TV.

The defence counsel however had objected to producing a part of the complete footage and had asked for the original footage with the complete speech to be presented to the court.

Fonseka was accused of disclosing state secrets during an interview to The Sunday Leader newspaper where he accused the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa of ordering a senior military officer to shoot senior LTTE cadres carrying white flags and trying to surrender to the security forces during the final stages of the war last year. (www.colombopage.com)