Permitting both parties to submit written submissions over two preliminary objections raised by the defence, the Colombo High Court postponed the case in which Parliamentarian, Rohitha Abeygunawardane was charged with the illegal acquisition of assets worth Rs. 41 million between 2004 to 2006.
The Bribery Commission had earlier indicted him in the Colombo High Court.
When the case was taken up before High Court Judge Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne, the Bribery Commission had sought court permission to amend the indictment by including a new witness list and other statements.
However, Defence Counsel, Kalinga Indatissa PC, who appeared for the accused, raised two preliminary objections on amending the indictment.
He moved that according to section 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the prosecution is only permitted to amend the indictment on two occasions.
Counsel ascertained that the prosecution is permitted only to replace an existing charge using a substitute amendment or add a completely new charge to the particular offence stated in the indictment.
Raising a preliminary objection, he moved that the he has not received a notice under section 7(1) of the Evidence Ordinance by the Bribery Commission over the listed witnesses of the case, adding that the listed witnesses in this case were based on computer generated statements, and therefore cannot be considered.
The judge thereafter asked both the prosecution and the defence to submit their stance in writing to the court over the preliminary objections raised by the defence and fixed October 31 as the date to file written submissions.
Defence counsel also said he would file a motion requesting court to permit his client to travel abroad for a month from September 24.
Considering the request the judge gave a calling date to decide on the request on September 9.
No comments:
Post a Comment