The Colombo High Court has fixed 12 October for further hearing of a second corruption case brought by the Bribery Commission against former minister Piyankara Jayaratne, who is already serving a prison sentence in a separate matter.
The case was called on Friday before High Court Judge Rashantha Godawela, with prison officers producing Jayaratne in open court, NewsFirst reported.
The charge: 3,000 Vesak cards
The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption alleges that Jayaratne caused a loss of Rs. 128,520 to the state through the unlawful printing of 3,000 Vesak greeting cards while he was Minister of Civil Aviation, between 10 May and 6 June 2013.
At Friday’s hearing the court granted a Commission request to add an officer involved in the investigation as a witness in the case.
A separate prosecution from the one he is serving
This is not the case that put Jayaratne in prison, and the two should not be confused.
On 1 September the Colombo High Court sentenced him to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment over a 2014 May Day lunch bill settled by the state-owned SriLankan Catering for supporters at a rally. He was convicted on two counts before Judge Mohamed Mihail, given seven years on each to run concurrently, and fined Rs. 200,000.
The Vesak cards matter is one of a group of prosecutions arising from his tenure at Civil Aviation. Reporting at the time the indictments were filed described three cases lodged in the Colombo High Court concerning the aviation portfolio: the Rs. 128,520 greeting cards charge, an alleged Rs. 360,000 loss through a payment directed to a farm company, and an alleged Rs. 494,000 credited to an account at a bank in Chilaw.
The sums are small by the standards of Sri Lankan corruption prosecutions — the greeting cards figure is under Rs. 130,000 — but the charge is framed as misuse of a state institution’s funds by the minister responsible for it rather than as large-scale theft.
Not reported
NewsFirst does not say how Jayaratne pleaded in this case, how many counts the indictment carries, what stage the trial has reached, or what penalty the charge attracts on conviction. It does not name the officer added as a witness, say whether the defence objected, or state what became of the other cases filed alongside this one.
Nor does it report whether Jayaratne has appealed the seven-year sentence he is currently serving. No other verified newsroom had filed on Friday’s hearing at the time of writing.
