The preliminary objection raised by defence, to dismiss the amended indictment in the high-profile Avant Garde floating armoury case, was fixed for its order on February 20 by the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar.
On the previous hearing, the defence presented their preliminary objection against the indictment of the Avant Garde case and stated that the indictment, which was filed by the Attorney General, is flawed; and the counsels who appeared on behalf of the first accused, Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Limited, and second accused, Avant-Garde Maritime Services (Pvt) Limited, pointed out that a criminal case cannot be maintained against a Private Limited Company.After considering the facts, the five accused in the high-profile Avant Garde floating armoury case were ordered to be released from, and the prosecution told that only 19 of the 7,573 charges could be maintained against the other eight accused by the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar.
Accordingly, the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar ordered to release first accused, Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Limited; second accused, the Avant-Garde Maritime Services (Pvt) Limited; third accused, former Rakna Lanka Chairman, retired Major General Waduge Palitha Piyasiri Fernando; fourth accused, former Rakna Lanka CEO, retired Major General Karunaratna Banda Adhikari Egodawele; and the twelfth accused, former Senior Additional Defence Secretary Damayanthi Jayaratne; from the case owing to the inability to maintain the charges under the Firearms Ordinance and the Explosives Ordinance.
When the case was taken up before the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar bench comprising High Court Judges Dhammika Ganepola (President), Adithya Patabendi and Manjula Thilakarathne, and Additional Solicitor-General Sarath Jayamanna, appearing on behalf of the Attorney-General, informed court that the Attorney-General had taken steps to revise the previous indictment.
Accordingly, the prosecution sought permission from the court to proceed the trial with amended indictments, comprising 882 charges against the accused, and to reclaim the five other accused who have been released by the Colombo High Court.
The Defence raised an objection and stated that the request made by the Attorney-General to reinstate the accused who have already been released from the case was contrary to the law.
Considering the circumstances, the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar ordered that the order of amended indictment will be given on February 20. Meanwhile, the defendants were ordered to produce their written submissions on or before February 14.
Previously, The Attorney-General had filed indictments comprising 7,573 charges in connection with the Avant-Garde arms-trafficking case against Avant-Garde Chairman Nissanka Yapa Senadhipathi, and the other 12 defendants.
The 7,573 charges, including unlawful possession of automatic firearms and live ammunition rounds, were laid against Avant-Garde Maritime Services (Pvt) Limited, Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Limited; Chairman of Avant-Garde, Nissanka Yapa Senadhipathi; former Rakna Lanka Chairman, retired Major General Waduge Palitha Piyasiri Fernando; former Rakna Lanka CEO, retired Major General Karunaratna Banda Adhikari Egodawele; General Manager of Rakna Lanka’s Ocean Security Unit, retired Air Vice Marshal Ponnuthurai Balasundaram Premachandran; Rakna Lanka Chairman Victor Samaraweera, Don Albert Tillekaratne; retired Navy Commodore Vishvajith Nandana Diyabalanage, Nilupul de Costa, Ukrainian Gennadiy Gavrylov; the captain of ‘MV Avant Garde’, former Additional Defence Secretary Saman Dissanayake; and former Senior Additional Defence Secretary Damayanthi Jayaratne. They were listed as the accused in the case.
According to the proposed indictment, the Attorney-General submitted that the accused have committed punishable offences under sections 22(1) and 22(3) of the Fire Arms Ordinance; and section 113B, 102, 189 and 190 of the Penal Code; for illegally operating merchant vessel ship MV Avant Garde carrying a stock of firearms and explosives, including 816 unlicensed automatic firearms and 202,935 rounds of ammunition, on the high seas off Galle.
The Attorney-General maintained that there is sufficient evidence to prove that the all accused had committed punishable offences under the Firearms Ordinance and Explosives Ordinance on or around October 6, 2015.
The Attorney-General further maintained that three of the accused; Saman Dissanayake, P.D. Premachandra, and Nissanka Senadhipathi; could be charged for fabricating false evidence under Section 189 and 190 of the Penal Code. Additional Solicitor General Sarath Jayamanna and Senior State Counsel Janaka Bandara appeared on behalf of the Attorney-General.
Add new comment