Mega corruption cases to be heard by trials-at-Bar

More High Courts to be established

by Zacki Jabbar-August 16, 2017, 12:00 pm 

The government has decided to increase the number of High Courts with some of them functioning as trials-at-bar since more than 43 criminal cases against some members of former President Mahinda Rajapaksas family and his regime were stuck at the Attorney General’s Department for nearly two years.

Addressing the weekly Cabinet Press Briefing at the Information Department yesterdy, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said that trials-at-bar could sit on a daily basis and hear a minimum of two cases a day, which would help clear the backlog of cases to a great extent.

There was a well planned conspiracy to delay the cases against some members of the Rajapaksa regime until 2020, hoping that the Rajapaksas would be back in power. But, that would not happen, he noted.

Responding to a question on Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe’s statement that a Constitutional Amendment was necessary to establish a Special Corruption Court, Senaratne said that the government could dispense with such a measure by establishing more High Courts.

Senaratne emphasised that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration was not on a witch hunt against members of the previous regime and it was only acting according to the mandate that people had given President Maithripala Sirisena at the last presidential election.

The Sirisena- Wickremesinghe government was not opposed to anyone within its ranks being investigated over corruption or other allegations, he said.