Mahinda, Basil pledge before SC not to leave country until tomorrow

Former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and former Finance Secretary S.R. Attygalle today pledged before the Supreme Court not to leave the country until tomorrow (July 15), Ada Derana correspondent says.

In the meantime, former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal also pledged before the Supreme Court not to fly out of the country and that if he does so, he would get the approval of the Supreme Court.

A motion was filed yesterday seeking an order prohibiting the former prime minister, the former finance minister and former CBSL governor and several others from leaving the country.

The motion was submitted in relation to a fundamental rights petition filed by the former Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) Chandra Jayaratne, requesting that an investigation be ordered against the individuals responsible for the current economic crisis.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa and Cabraal, who have been named as a respondent, gave the pledges to the court through their lawyers when the motion was taken up today before Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya and Justices L.T.B. Dehideniya and Buwaneka Aluwihare, Priyantha Jayawardena and Vijith Malalgoda.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court issued a travel ban on former Central Bank governor W.D. Lakshman effective until tomorrow as an attorney failed to appear before the bench on his behalf.