MP Namal Rajapaksa is scheduled to appear before the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday as the case over alleged financial irregularities and money laundering connected to SriLankan Airlines’ purchase of Airbus aircraft is taken up again.
Rajapaksa, named a suspect by the Criminal Investigation Department, was remanded until today, Hiru News reported. The remand order was made by Fort Magistrate Pasan Amarasena.
Two cases, two courts
The distinction matters and is easily lost. Rajapaksa is before two separate benches on matters arising from the same Airbus procurement:
- Fort Magistrate’s Court — the CID money laundering file, the one called today. He was remanded to 23 September on 16 September, when 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 29 September.
The money laundering file reached the Fort Magistrate after the Attorney General directed the CID to name Rajapaksa a suspect in the case originally built against former SriLankan Airlines chief executive Kapila Chandrasena and his wife. Investigators allege Chandrasena passed part of the money on.
The defence position
Speaking outside court on 19 September, attorney-at-law Manoj Gamage said none of the emails produced before the court carries his client’s name and that there was no direct exchange between Rajapaksa and the manufacturer. The exchanges, he said, were between company officials and do not establish that his client received anything.
Hiru was the only verified newsroom carrying the listing at the time of writing; neither Daily Mirror nor NewsFirst had filed on it. What the court does with the remand — extend it, grant bail, or fix a further date — was not known when this article was published.
