Former trade minister Nalin Fernando, currently serving a prison sentence, has petitioned the Court of Appeal to quash a fresh High Court indictment filed against him in the so-called “carrom board” case, arguing the new prosecution violates the constitutional bar on being tried twice for the same offence.
The case relates to allegations that 14,000 carrom boards and 11,000 draughts boards were imported through the state-owned Sathosa network during the 2015 Presidential Election campaign and distributed to political offices of then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, causing the government a loss of Rs. 39 million. The Attorney General has filed indictments before the Colombo High Court under the Public Property Act based on those facts.
Fernando’s counsel, President’s Counsel Ali Sabry, told the bench that his client had already been convicted by the Bribery Commission over the same Sathosa transaction. Proceeding with a parallel indictment under the Public Property Act on identical facts, he argued, amounted to double jeopardy and offended fundamental legal principles.
A two-judge Court of Appeal bench of Justices P. Kumararatnam and Pradeep Hettiarachchi took up the petition on Monday and fixed it for hearing on June 17.
Fernando, a former trade minister in the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa administration, has been one of the most-prosecuted figures from the previous government’s Sathosa procurement record. The fresh Court of Appeal challenge sits alongside ongoing accountability tracks against former Speaker and Treasury Secretary R.S. Wijeratne, former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal’s reopened Greek-bond trial, and the Bribery Commission’s Airbus indictments against the Rajapaksa-era SriLankan Airlines leadership.
Update — June 18: Hearing deferred to June 25
The Court of Appeal on Thursday postponed further consideration of Fernando’s petition until June 25, when the Attorney General is expected to present the State’s position on the double-jeopardy claim. The bench of Justices P. Kumaran Ratnam and Pradeep Hettiarachchi took up the matter on Thursday and adjourned without making a ruling on the indictment’s validity, NewsFirst reported.
President’s Counsel Ali Sabry, appearing on the instructions of Attorney-at-Law Ramzi Bacha, reiterated that Fernando had already been sentenced by the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar to 30 years of rigorous imprisonment over the same Sathosa transaction in a case filed by the Bribery Commission. The Attorney General’s parallel indictment under the Public Property Act based on identical facts was therefore unlawful, he argued. Sabry noted that the trial judge in the High Court matter had rejected the same preliminary objections, making the Court of Appeal review the petitioner’s last procedural recourse.
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