COLOMBO : The Colombo High Court Trial-at Bar temporarily lifted the travel ban imposed on Avant-Garde Chairman Nissanka Yapa Senadhipathi over the High profile Avant Garde floating armoury case on Monday.
The case was taken up before the Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar bench comprising High Court Judges Adithya Patabendi, Manjula Thilakarathne and Mahen Weeramana and the judge panel ordered that the travel ban of the accused be suspended until April 23, subject to a bond of Rs.2.5 million.
When the case was taken up yesterday, President’s Counsel Sampath Mendis sought from the Court to lift the travel ban imposed on accused Nissanka Senadhipathi stating that his client wanted to seek medical treatment abroad for his ailments.
Senior State Counsel Janaka Bandara appearing for the Attorney General stated that there was no objection to the request from the defence.
Accordingly, after considering the medical reports submitted by the accused, the bench ordered to lift the travel ban temporarily on the accused to bring medical treatment abroad till April 23 and also to inform the Registrar of Courts to inform the Controller of Immigration and Emigration regarding the matter.
The Attorney General had filed indictments comprising 7,573 charges in connection with the Avant-Garde arms trafficking case against Avant-Garde Chairman Nissanka Yapa Senadhipathi and the other 12 defendants. The 7,573 charges including unlawful possession of automatic firearms and live ammunition rounds, were laid against the Avant-Garde Maritime Services (Pvt) Limited, Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Limited ,Chairman of Avant-Garde, Nissanka Yapa Senadhipathi, former Rakna Lanka Chairman, retired Major General Waduge Palitha Piyasiri Fernando, former Rakna Lanka CEO, retired Major General Karunaratna Banda Adhikari Egodawele, General Manager of Rakna Lanka’s Ocean Security Unit, retired Air Vice Marshal Ponnuthurai Balasundaram Premachandran, Rakna Lanka Chairman Victor Samaraweera, Don Albert Tillekaratne, retired Navy Commodore Vishvajith Nandana Diyabalanage, Nilupul de Costa, Ukrainian Gennadiy Gavrylov, the captain of ‘MV Avant Garde’, former Additional Defence Secretary Saman Dissanayake and former Senior Additional Defence Secretary Damayanthi Jayaratne, who were listed as the accused in the case. According to the proposed indictment, the Attorney General submitted that the accused have committed punishable offences under sections 22(1) and 22(3) of the Fire Arms Ordinance and section 113B, 102, 189 and 190 of the Penal Code for illegally operating the merchant vessel ship MV Avant Garde carrying a stock of firearms and explosives including 816 unlicensed automatic firearms and 202,935 rounds of ammunition on the high seas off Galle.
The Attorney General maintained that there is sufficient evidence to prove that the all accused had committed punishable offences under the Firearms Ordinance and Explosives Ordinance on or around October 6, 2015. The Attorney General further maintained that three accused – Saman Dissanayake, P.D. Premachandra and Nissanka Senadhipathi – could be charged for fabricating false evidence under Section 189 and 190 of the Penal Code.
