Former Civil Aviation Minister Piyankara Jayaratne was sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment by the Colombo High Court on Tuesday after being convicted of corruption over a lunch bill his supporters ran up at a May Day rally twelve years ago.
The case, brought by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, alleged that Jayaratne caused a loss to the state by having the state-owned SriLankan Catering settle the bill for refreshments served to supporters who took part in the 2014 May Day parade. The indictment said he influenced a senior officer of the company to authorise the payment while he held the civil aviation portfolio.
The verdict was delivered by High Court Judge Mohamed Mihail after a lengthy trial, Ada Derana reported. The date for judgment had been fixed for Tuesday.
Two sentences, served together
The court convicted Jayaratne on two counts and imposed a seven-year term on each, NewsFirst reported. The two sentences were ordered to run concurrently, so the effective term is seven years rather than fourteen. He was also fined Rs. 200,000.
Ada Derana’s account did not mention the second count, the fine, or the concurrency order.
The outlets differ on the amount and the recipient
The two newsrooms give different figures for the sum involved. Ada Derana put it at Rs. 320,000; NewsFirst put it at Rs. 330,000. Neither noted the discrepancy, and LankaNewz has not established which figure appears in the indictment.
They also describe the recipient differently. Ada Derana said the money went from SriLankan Catering’s account to a private catering service in Marawila; NewsFirst said it went to a hotel in Marawila. Both agree the payment originated with SriLankan Catering, a state-owned enterprise, and both place the recipient in Marawila.
The two accounts describe the officer Jayaratne is said to have pressured slightly differently as well — Ada Derana calls the person “an executive officer” of SriLankan Catering, while NewsFirst identifies the person as the Chief Executive Officer.
A second case against him was in court the same day
A separate Bribery Commission case against Jayaratne was taken up before a different judge in the same court complex on Tuesday and put off until 11 November, Hiru News reported.
That case concerns the printing of Vesak cards. The commission alleges that Jayaratne caused a loss of Rs. 128,520 to the state by having 3,000 Vesak cards printed between 10 May and 6 June 2013, again while serving as Minister of Civil Aviation. It is also filed under two counts.
The eleventh prosecution witness gave evidence on Tuesday before High Court Judge Rashantha Godawela, who ordered the Bribery Commission to submit to court all evidence reports provided so far and recalled the case for 11 November.
The two matters are distinct — different judges, different allegations, different years — and no outlet reported them together.
He is also a figure in the Airbus case
Jayaratne has appeared repeatedly in Bribery Commission proceedings over the SriLankan Airlines Airbus aircraft procurement. He was summoned to record statements in that case in May, on the same day former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was served a CIABOC summons at his Carlton residence, and his name recurs in the warrants and hearings that followed. The Airbus matter is separate again from both cases heard on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s conviction comes days after the Bribery Commission arrested former minister Ravi Karunanayake in a National Lotteries Board investigation.
A note on the spelling
Outlets render the former minister’s first name two ways. Ada Derana and NewsFirst use Piyankara in their headlines but switch to Priyankara within the same articles; Hiru News uses Priyankara throughout. Our own archive is split almost evenly between the two. LankaNewz uses Piyankara, following the headline spelling used by the majority of outlets reporting the sentence.
No outlet reported whether Jayaratne intends to appeal, or whether he was taken into custody on Tuesday.
