The Court of Appeal has decided to hear the contempt of court case against six people — including MP Dilith Jayaweera and former ministers Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila — throughout the day on Wednesday, Hiru News reported.

The case was filed before the Court of Appeal on a recommendation made by the Colombo Fort Magistrate.

The bench and the charges

The matter is being heard before a three-judge bench comprising the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Rohantha Abeysuriya, with Justice Chamath Morais and Justice Adithya Patabendige.

The complaint names six: Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanpila, Dilith Jayaweera, Sugeeshwara Bandara, Asanka Navaratne and Mahinda Pathirana.

Two sets of statements are at issue, according to the filing. The first concerns remarks made in protest at the arrest of Suresh Sallay, the former Director of the State Intelligence Service. The second concerns comments on the Easter Sunday attack case said to have been made in a manner that amounted to contempt of court.

How the case reached this point

This desk has tracked the proceedings since mid-year. The Criminal Investigation Department opened a contempt probe against the six over their statements on the Easter case in June, a step the Free Lawyers’ collective criticised as an attack on free speech the following day.

In August the Fort Magistrate’s Court found that the six had committed contempt and referred the matter to the Court of Appeal for appropriate proceedings to be instituted. Dilith Jayaweera challenged that referral by writ; the Court of Appeal heard his petition in September and dismissed it on 30 September.

The three-judge bench was named in September, and proceedings were subsequently fixed for 15 October. Wednesday’s allocation of a full hearing day is the first substantive step this desk has recorded since that date.

Update: the hearing ran into a second day, with the Attorney General to follow

The case was called again on Thursday morning, and the Attorney General’s submissions were fixed for Friday. The full day allocated to Wednesday did not conclude the matter, Hiru News reported.

President’s Counsel Anura Meddegoda, appearing for respondent Wimal Weerawansa, made submissions when the case was taken up on Thursday. The court decided to postpone both the remainder of his submissions and the Attorney General’s submissions to Friday. The same three-judge bench — Justice Rohantha Abeysuriya, Justice Chamath Morais and Justice Adithya Patabendige — continues to hear the matter.

That answers two of the questions left open below. Counsel is now on the record for at least one respondent, and the hearing has not concluded within the single day set aside for it. The order of proceedings is clear: the respondents are being heard first, with the Attorney General replying.

Still unanswered: what happened on 15 October, whether all six respondents appeared or were represented on either day, who appears for the remaining five, and what penalties the court may impose. Hiru’s own headline describes the respondents as “Wimal, Dilith, Udaya and 6 others,” which would make nine; the complaint names six in total, as set out above. The headline is a slip, not a new set of respondents.

Not reported

The filing does not say what happened on 15 October or whether the case was heard on that date, nor whether all six respondents appeared on Wednesday or were represented. It gives no indication of what penalties the Court of Appeal may impose, does not name counsel for either side, and does not say whether the hearing is expected to conclude on Wednesday or continue to a further date. It does not quote the statements said to constitute contempt, or set out the respondents’ defence.

On sourcing and on a name: this report rests on a single fresh verified source, Hiru News. Searches of the Daily Mirror, NewsFirst, Island, Daily News, Daily FT and EconomyNext for Wednesday’s hearing returned the August and October filings in this same thread rather than a same-day report. Hiru’s Sinhala filing renders the second judge’s name as “චමත්ක මොරායස්”; this desk has used the spelling Chamath Morais carried by NewsFirst, the Daily Mirror and the Daily News in their earlier English-language coverage of this bench.