The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday refused bail to SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa and extended his remand to September 30, in the Criminal Investigation Department’s money laundering case arising from SriLankan Airlines’ purchase of Airbus aircraft.
Rajapaksa was due before the court today as an earlier remand order expired. Daily Mirror reported that he was further remanded until September 30 over the money laundering allegations connected to the Airbus deal.
The bail ruling, which only one outlet reported
Hiru News reported the additional step that produced the outcome: the magistrate rejected a bail application filed by Rajapaksa, and the bail order was read out in court on Wednesday before the remand was extended.
The Daily Mirror account records the extended remand but does not mention the bail application or its refusal. The two reports are consistent — a refused bail application is what leaves a remand to be extended — but only Hiru states that bail was formally sought and denied.
The magistrate is named by Hiru as Pasan Amarasinghe; our earlier reporting on this file, and the bulk of the archive, renders the name Pasan Amarasena. The outlets have not reconciled the spelling.
Two courts, two dates, one week apart
Rajapaksa is before two separate benches on matters arising from the same Airbus procurement, and the dates now fall a day apart:
- Fort Magistrate’s Court — the CID money laundering file, now extended to September 30. When he was remanded to today on September 16, the prosecution told the court the file concerns the same US$800,000 at issue elsewhere in the investigation, and that forensic work had recovered emails exchanged with Airbus officials.
- Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court — the CIABOC bribery case, in which he was remanded until September 29.
The money laundering file reached the Fort Magistrate after the Attorney General directed the CID to name Rajapaksa a suspect in a case originally built against former SriLankan Airlines chief executive Kapila Chandrasena and his wife.
His attorney-at-law Manoj Gamage has said none of the emails produced before the court carries his client’s name, and that the exchanges were between company officials rather than between Rajapaksa and the manufacturer.
Neither outlet reports the grounds on which bail was refused, or whether the defence will renew the application before a higher court.
