Hicorp case objections deferred until Jan 20

12 December 2011 05:00 pm

The Colombo High Court Judge today postponed the order on the preliminary objections taken by the defence in the Hicorp case against former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka for January 20, claiming that the material in the indictment in the High Court was similar to that in the second Court Martial trial in which Sarath Fonseka was sentenced and thus no action could be instituted twice against an accused on the same charges.

At the onset of the case Defence Counsel Saliya Pieris  marked out  the relevant sections from the proceedings of the second Court Martial  by  Court Interpreter Mudliyar S.A.M. Nafli to prove his standpoint.

Following the marking of the evidence by the defence, State Counsel Damith Totawatte too marked certain sections from the evidence of the second Court Martial  to prove that the two cases were  not on  the same charges. 

Subsequently High Court Judge Sunil Rajapaksa put off his order on the objection for January 20. He also said that if necessary he would direct the parties to make written submissions.

The Attorney General indicted the former Army Commander’s son-in-law Dhanuna Thilakaratne, Wellington De Hoedt and Sarath Fonseka for defrauding public funds in the name of the locally registered Hicorp Private Company by forwarding forged documents to the Sri Lanka Army fraudulently acting as an agent for a British Borneo Defence Company in Australia and that the funds obtained had been deposited in an account at the Bank of America under the name of Dhanuna Tilakaratne. (TFT)