The Court of Appeal granted bail for retired Major, Attorney Ajith Prasanna who was ordered to be released on two sureties of Rs.500,000 each.
Prasanna had been remanded by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court over an allegation that he had intimidated witnesses in a case before Magistrate’s Court during two media conferences.
The Court of Appeal two-judge-bench comprising Justice Priyantha Fernando and Justice Devika Abeyratne decided to grant bail after taking into consideration the fact that he would be refrained from making comments to media over judicial matters.
The Court also considered the fact that suspect had been held in remand custody since January 25, 2020, his health condition and conclusion of investigations against the suspect.
Senior State Counsel Janaka Bandara appearing for Attorney General did not object to release the suspect on bail and said the Attorney General will file indictments against him.
Petitioner Ajith Prasanna had filed this application requesting that he be enlarged on bail under Section 10(1)(a) of Assistance to and Protection of Victims of Crimes Act No. 04 of 2015.
The Petitioner stated that he had organised two media conferences in December 2019 “to educate the public about the harassment faced by individuals and their families attached to various intelligence branches of the armed forces due to subjective, arbitrary and unjustifiable arrests of the security personnel by certain individuals of the Police who are no longer in service.
Subsequent to these two media conferences, the Petitioner was directed to make a statement to the Criminal Investigations Department after it had commenced investigations into a complaint by the Registrar of the Magistrate’s Court of Fort. The petitioner stated that he became aware that an attorney who appeared for the aggrieved party in a case before the Magistrate’s Court had brought to the notice of Court that Prasanna had intimidated witnesses during media conferences.
