Stay order on Special HC’s trial against Gotabaya extended
October 11, 2019 01:30 pm
The Supreme Court has extended the stay order on the Permanent High Court at Bar preventing the trial of D.A. Rajapaksa Museum case until the 10th of December, says Ada Derana reporter.
The judge bench has also ruled that the appeal petition of former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the main defendant of the case, will be fixed for support on December 10.
This appeal petition was taken up before Supreme Court Justices Buwaneka Aluwihare, Murdu Fernando and Gamini Amarasekara today (11).
Meanwhile, the D.A. Rajapaksa Museum case is scheduled to be heard daily starting from October 15.
The case against the former Defence Secretary and six others was filed by the Attorney General, for allegedly misappropriating state funds amounting to Rs 33.9 million during the construction of the D.A. Rajapaksa Museum and Memorial in Medamulana.
The Permanent High Court at Bar had rejected the preliminary objections filed by Gotabaya Rajapaksa stating that it does not have the jurisdiction to hear the case.
The former defence secretary then lodged a revision petition with the Court of Appeal seeking an order suspending the rejection of his appeal. However, the Appeals Court ruled that it does not have the jurisdiction to hear the revision petition, hence, rejected it without taking it up.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa then filed a special appeal petition with the Supreme Court challenging the Appeals Court verdict.
On July 25th, the Supreme Court delivered an order preventing trial at Special High Court against Gotabaya Rajapaksa over the D.A. Rajapaksa Museum case till the 1st of October, taking into consideration a special appeal petition lodged by the main defendant. This stay order was initially extended by the Supreme Court on October 01.
