Reply To:
Name - Reply Comment
Last Updated : 2024-04-19 19:28:00
Allowing the appeal made to the UK High Court by Major General Priyanka Fernando, the former Minister Counsellor (Defence) of the Sri Lanka High Commission against the judgement of the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on him, the High Court today quashed his conviction by the Magistrates’ Court on December 06, 2019 and acquitted him.
High Commission of Sri Lanka in London said the defendants, who are pro-LTTE demonstrators who staged protests in front of the Sri Lanka High Commission in London on Sri Lanka’s 70th Independence Day on February, 04 2018 were ordered to pay costs to Major Gen. Fernando.
The High Court compellingly rejected the arguments of the defendants and accepting the arguments on behalf of Major Gen Fernando, upheld the traditional views on diplomatic immunity as contained in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 to which both Sri Lanka and the UK are States Parties.
“The interpretation of the treaty should not be an exercise in ‘pedantic literalism’. It should be read in the context of its ‘object and purpose’” said the court in its judgement.
The Court said that the efficacy of the Vienna Convention depends, even more than most treaties do, on its reciprocal operation. Article 47.2 of the Vienna Convention authorises any receiving state to restrict the application of a provision to the diplomatic agents of a sending state if that state gives a restrictive application of that provision as applied to the receiving state’s own mission.
The UK High Court also draws the danger of the threat to the efficient performance of diplomatic functions which arises from the risk of trumped up or baseless allegations and unsatisfactory tribunals. It opines that from the United Kingdom’s point of view, a significant purpose of conferring diplomatic immunity of foreign diplomatic personnel in Britain is to ensure that British diplomatic personnel enjoy corresponding immunities elsewhere.
The UK High Court further says that the doctrine of diplomatic immunity affords protection to all diplomatic staff in the UK in exchange for the equivalent protection afforded to the UK’s diplomatic staff abroad. The grant of immunity does not depend on ministerial fiat, rather it exists by virtue of statute and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relation.
The High Court judges also decided that the Chief Magistrate of the Westminster Magistrates’ Court was not right in her determination that Major Gen Fernando was not covered by residual immunity when he faced trial at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Gayan Saturday, 20 March 2021 06:47 AM
LTTE diaspora has to pay costs? Oh my.
BE FAIR Saturday, 20 March 2021 07:32 AM
With this let's lay to rest the LTTE ideology. Loss cause indeed
Karl Saturday, 20 March 2021 09:07 AM
Truth prevails!
Sashindra Fitzgerald Weerasinghe Saturday, 20 March 2021 09:14 AM
Beauty of the law is there is still hope on judges like in this court still exists delivering justice on sound law, logic and truth.
TJ Saturday, 20 March 2021 09:48 AM
So the Vienna convention came to his rescue?
Wimal Ellepola Saturday, 20 March 2021 08:52 PM
Best news of the day! Congratulations!
Add comment
Comments will be edited (grammar, spelling and slang) and authorized at the discretion of Daily Mirror online. The website also has the right not to publish selected comments.
Reply To:
Name - Reply Comment
On March 26, a couple arriving from Thailand was arrested with 88 live animal
According to villagers from Naula-Moragolla out of 105 families 80 can afford
Is the situation in Sri Lanka so grim that locals harbour hope that they coul
A recent post on social media revealed that three purple-faced langurs near t