By Shehan Chamika Silva
The Colombo Fort Magistrate today refused to issue a warrant, through Interpol, for the arrest of a one-time Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia, Udayanga Weeratunga and directed that summons be forwarded through the Foreign Ministry to his address in Ukraine.
Earlier, he was noticed to provide statements over the inquiry conducted into the huge financial loss caused to the Government in the purchase of four Ukraine-built MIG-27 aircraft in 2006.
According to Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID) Inspector Nihal Francis the deal amounted to US$14 million.
Earlier, he was noticed to provide statements to the FCID over the inquiry by the Court.
The FCID Said that it took all the appropriate steps to serve the summons but failed since Mr. Weeratunga was not in country.
And on July 15, the FCID sought court permission to issue an arrest warrant on him.
The Magistrate said that all though the prosecution had taken all appropriate steps to serve summons to Mr. Weeratunga but the police could not handed it over to the person.
And knowing that Mr. Weeratunga's foreign address the prosecution could have sent the summons through Foreign Ministry to Ukraine according to the section 46 of the Criminal Procedure code.
The Magistrate also ordered the court registrar to send a summons copy to the given foreign address through register post.
The Court also directed the Sri Lanka Airforce Legal Department Director to appear in court on September 26 to clarify as to why the original contract of the MIG deal was not with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment