Yoshitha Rajapaksa, son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, withdrew a petition before the Supreme Court on Monday that sought to stop the conspiracy charge against him being maintained in a case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The petition was taken up before a bench of Justices Mahinda Samayawardhena, Sampath Abeykoon and Gihan Kulatunga, Hiru News reported. Attorney-at-Law Hafeel Farisz, appearing with Ashoka Baran for the petitioner, told court the petition was being withdrawn while retaining the right to raise the same argument before the Court of Appeal should his client be convicted of the charge.

The court granted permission to withdraw, Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara having agreed on behalf of the Attorney General. Ada Derana reported that the Supreme Court allowed Yoshitha Rajapaksa to raise the same matter in any future appeal.

The argument being set aside

The petition turned on the discharge of a co-accused. The Attorney General had filed a charge of conspiracy under the Act against Yoshitha Rajapaksa and his grandmother, Daisy Forrest — and subsequently acted to discharge Forrest on medical grounds after the court accepted reports that she was not mentally fit to face trial. The defence position has been that a conspiracy charge framed against two people cannot stand against one of them alone.

That argument has now failed at three levels. The Colombo High Court rejected the preliminary objections in May, holding that Forrest’s release was a procedural step rather than an acquittal. The Court of Appeal dismissed a revision petition against that ruling in July. Monday’s withdrawal ends the special leave to appeal petition filed against the Court of Appeal’s decision — the same Supreme Court bid the Attorney General opposed in July.

The outlets labelled the filing differently: Ada Derana called it an appeal and Hiru’s headline described it as a petition to halt the case, while Hiru’s own report identifies it as a special leave to appeal petition, the revision petition having been the earlier, dismissed Court of Appeal step.

The withdrawal clears the last interlocutory obstacle before the substantive trial, which is listed for September 10. The Attorney General alleges the unlawful acquisition of five plots of land in Dehiwala and Ratmalana worth more than Rs. 73 million.

The indictment is wider than the charge at issue

A third account, published by Daily Mirror, supplies a detail the other two omit: the Attorney General indicted Yoshitha Rajapaksa and Daisy Forrest before the Colombo High Court on three counts, not one — conspiracy to commit money laundering, the commission of money laundering, and aiding and abetting the offence, all under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

That matters for reading Monday’s outcome. The argument abandoned in the Supreme Court went only to the conspiracy count and the effect of a co-accused’s discharge on it. The two substantive counts were never touched by it, and would stand regardless of how the conspiracy point had been decided.

Daily Mirror confirms the bench of Justices Mahinda Samayawardhena, Sampath Abaykoon and Gihan Kulatunga — rendering the second name Abaykoon where the other outlets have Abeykoon — and confirms that the court preserved the petitioner’s ability to reserve the preliminary issues for any future appeal.

Sources