Sri Lanka: Corruption Charges Against Gota, Seven Others

( September 1, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption yesterday filed a corruption case against eight persons including former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, and three former Navy Commanders for allegedly causing a sum of Rs.11.4 billion unlawful loss to the government when giving permission to the Avant-Garde Maritime Services (Pvt) Ltd to operate a floating armory.

Former Navy Commanders Somatilleke Dissanayake, Jayanath Kolambage and Jayantha Perera were among accused listed by the Bribery Commission. The eight accused listed in the corruption case were; former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, former Additional Secretary to the Defence Ministry Sujatha Damayanthi, Avant Garde Chairman Major Nissanka Senadhipathi, Somatilleke Dissanayake, Jayanath Kolambage and Jayantha Perera, Palitha Piyasiri Fernando and Karunaratne Banda Adhikari.

When the case came up before Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris, he decided to refer the case for the attention of Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya today.

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption had filed this case against eight accused under Section 70 of the Bribery Act.

The Bribery Commi