AG files amended indictments on Avant Garde case with 882 charges
January 30, 2020 04:54 pm
The Attorney General has filed the amended indictments on the Avant-Garde floating armory case before the Permanent High Court-at-Bar.
According to the Coordinating Officer to the AG, the AG has filed 882 indictment charges on the case.
Further, the case has been set to be heard on the 10th of February.
Previously, the Attorney General’s Department had filed a case over the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition inside the M.V. Avant Garde vessel anchored off the Hikkaduwa coast near the Galle Harbour, without a proper license, with an indictment comprising 7,573 charges against the defendants.
However, on January 17, the five accused in the case were released from the case due to the fact that only 19 out of the 7,573 total charges filed can be carried forward.
Accordingly, the Avant-Garde Maritime Services (Pvt) Ltd, Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Ltd, former Rakna Lanka Chairman Major General (Rtd) Palitha Fernando, Major General (Rtd) K.B. Egodawela and former Senior Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Defence D.M.S. Damayanthi Jayaratne were released in this manner.
