- The Court of Appeal upholds convictions and sentences against three accused in South Asia’s largest VAT scam.
- The three accused were convicted of criminal misappropriation of nearly Rs. 3.9 billion of Treasury money.
- Justice Sampath Abeykoon and Justice R. Gurusinghe agree with the convictions and sentences.
- President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne, acquits the three accused from all charges and sets aside the conviction and sentence.
- The High Court had sentenced the three accused to 20 years rigorous imprisonment with fines.
- The original case involved 14 accused indicted on 34 charges of misappropriation of public funds.
- The Court of Appeal delivers its judgment for three accused who were absent from the trial but represented by their Counsel.
- The offences were committed between November 2002 and December 2004.
- Senior Deputy Solicitor General Shanil Kularatne appeared for the Attorney General, and Rienzie Arsecularatne PC, Kapila Waidyaratne PC, Zuhair PC, and Counsel Mahendra Kumarasinghe appeared for the accused-appellants.
Source: lankaweb.com
Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.
