A Draft Bill for the establishments of three anti-corruption high courts was approved by Cabinet yesterday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe announced at a United National Party rally in Gampaha.
According to the Bill, the High Court will comprise of three judges who will take up financial frauds, corruption, criminal breach of trust, money laundering, terrorism financing, organised crime, assets and denials of state revenue.
“There will no longer be a necessity to go to magistrate courts, these high courts will be able to hear cases everyday,” he said.
“From the month of June onwards, the courts will start hearing cases. We also need 15 judges for the same for which the Attorney General mentioned he will look into it,”the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister who was speaking at a rally in Gampaha said that there was a backlog of cases relating to corruption and fraud which was stalled due to the lack of time and courts. He added that with the three new high courts, cases cannot be prolonged or ‘swept under the carpet.’
He called on the public to exercise their franchise on February 10 for a party which had a long term plan, funds and resources for the Gampaha district.
Meanwhile, State Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardene said that the UNP would rule until 2020 by which time it would have sought and clinched all electorates.
“We would be perfectly poised to have a government led by the UNP. We will stop only once we’ve made Rani lWickremasinghethe next presidential candidate.”
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