The Colombo High Court on Thursday refixed the money-laundering trial of Yoshitha Rajapaksa for 26 November, after his counsel told the court he was too unwell to attend.
Further evidence had been listed for 1.30 p.m. on Thursday before High Court Judge Udesh Ranatunga. When the case was called in the morning, President’s Counsel Sampath Mendis, appearing for Rajapaksa, said his client was suffering from a back-related condition and could not come to court, Hiru News reported. Counsel submitted a medical report.
The prosecution is close to closing its case
Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara, for the prosecution, told the court he had expected to conclude the prosecution’s evidence on Thursday. He said only three witnesses remained to be called, and that he intended to call them on the next trial date, according to the Daily Mirror.
The judge fixed the trial for 26 November and directed that the witnesses appear on that date.
The charge, and a figure the outlets do not agree on
The Attorney General indicted Rajapaksa under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, alleging he committed an offence by purchasing five plots of land in the Dehiwala and Ratmalana areas.
The sum involved is reported differently by the two outlets. Hiru News, in Sinhala, gives it as more than 730 lakhs — that is, over Rs. 73 million. The Daily Mirror’s closing paragraph puts it at “over Rs. 730 million,” ten times higher.
This desk has encountered the same discrepancy before. When the case was last reported in detail in October, our coverage recorded that the Daily Mirror’s figure of “more than Rs. 730 million” stood against the Tamil Guardian’s “nearly Rs 73.5 million,” and the lower figure was adopted. The Daily Mirror’s higher number appears in the same boilerplate paragraph a month apart, which points to a standing error in that outlet’s case summary rather than a new figure from court. This report uses more than Rs. 73 million.
A separate case
Thursday’s hearing concerns the land purchases only. It is distinct from the proceedings in which Rajapaksa is a defendant alongside former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, where the trial was fixed for 23 November, and from the case over naval salaries in which evidence was led in October.
Not reported
Neither filing says how many prosecution witnesses have already testified, nor identifies the three still to be called. Neither gives the date the indictment was filed or when the land purchases are alleged to have taken place. Nothing indicates whether the defence objected to the postponement, and neither account states what medical condition the report describes beyond counsel’s reference to the back.
