Swiss Embassy staffer hands over mobile phone to Court

Orders suspect to report to CID every month

By Yoshitha Perera 

Swiss Embassy local staffer, Garnia Bannister Francis yesterday handed over her official phone to the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court and the Court is yet to decide on producing it to the government analyst for further investigations.   

When the case was taken up in Courts, Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne said that the order regarding handing over of the official phone of the suspect to the government analyst, will be delivered on January 21.   

Counsel Upul Kumaraperruma, representing the Swiss Embassy local staffer, informed Court that there were official data and recordings of the Swiss Embassy in his client’s official phone and there was a risk of handing of the phone to the government analyst.   

He said according to the Diplomatic Privileges Act there was a problem in handing over his client’s phone to the government analyst.   

However, representing the Attorney General’s (AG) department, Senior State Counsel (SSC) Janaka Bandara questioned the defence party’s authority to hamper with the investigation which was going to be conducted by the government analyst regarding the matter.