President, Prime Minister summoned to testify in Tissa’s trial

The Colombo High Court today re-issued summons on the President and the Prime Minister to appear in court in the case against the United National Party’s former Secretary Tissa Attanayake for displaying a letter with forged signatures of the then presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena and the then Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe during the 2015 presidential election.

Earlier, the High Court issued summons on the President and the Prime Minister to submit their evidence in court.

When the case was taken up for consideration in the absence of the main two witnesses, Additional Solicitor General Wasantha Navaratna Bandara told court that he was informed by the prosecution that the two witness would be unable to be present in court today.

Subsequently, High Court Judge Vikum Kaluarachchi also confirmed that the witnesses had informed the court in writing about the difficulty of appearing in court and requested convenient days to testify in the case.

The trial was fixed to be heard duringJuly 17 and 28, 2017.

Mr. Attanayake was indicted by the Attorney General on three counts of committing offences under the Penal Code, International Political and Civil Rights Convention and Presidential Election Act. (Shehan Chaika Silva)