Temporary travel ban on Swiss Embassy staffer

• Court directs the embassy employee to provide a statement to the CID
• She is missing from her residence 
• Attended a parents meeting at school on the day of the incident
• Swiss embassy fails to provide information about the employee
• Senior State Counsel says husband too aware of incident 

By Yoshitha Perera 

The Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court yesterday issued a travel ban till December 9 on the Swiss Embassy employee, who was allegedly threatened by a group of unidentified men last week.  

The Magistrate also directed the employee to provide a statement to the CID within that time.  

When the case was taken up before Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne, the CID informed Court that the Swiss Embassy employee’s name was found to be Garnier Banister Francis but her current residence could not be located.   

Representing the Attorney General’s department, Senior State Counsel (SSC) Janaka Bandara informed the Magistrate that when the CID tried to get a statement from the Swiss Ambassador, the Embassy officials had refused to provide any assistance.   

“However, the Second Officer to the Ambassador, Rahul Imbatch had provided a verbal statement to the CID about the whole incident but the Embassy had failed to provide the necessary information about the particular employee,” a CID officer said.   

SSC Janka Bandara said in the B report the CID had mentioned that the employee was a resident of an apartment at Maligakanda.   
He said when the CID were conducting investigations at the apartment premises, the security officer at the apartment had told the CID officers that the employee’s mother had told him that her family had left the apartment to go abroad.   

“Investigations also revealed that on the day of the incident, the woman had attended a parent-teacher meeting at St. Bridget’s Convent and since she is currently missing, the CID had to record statements from the school staff as well,” SSC Bandara said.   

Explaining the legal procedure to request a travel ban, he said according to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) Section 115, the CID had to continue its investigations into the matter.   
“As mentioned in Section 115, the current situation is that investigations cannot be completed in twenty-four hours and Ms. Banister is missing from her residence,” SSC Bandara said.   
He said the CID and the AG’s department could not prepare the legal documents since there was lack of support from Ms Banister’s side and the issue has become a serious matter to the country.   

“When we are trying to find her, she is not available. We want to know what exactly happened on that day and it is her responsibility to cooperate with us and solve this matter,” SSC Bandara said.   

He said investigations had also revealed that the employee’s husband, who is an officer at the Nations Trust Bank was also aware about the particular incident but his contact number was not working.  

“We need to get a statement on whether she was actually abducted. If not, who had framed her to create such a story? There are several questions to be answered,” SSC Bandara said.   
Considering the evidence the Magistrate had banned the embassy employee from leaving the country until December 9.