Court allows AG to amend charge sheets against Swiss Embassy staffer
May 3, 2023 01:15 pm
The Colombo High Court has permitted the Attorney General to amend the charge sheet filed against Garnia Bannister Francis, a local employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo who was allegedly abducted in 2019.
The court order was issued by Colombo High Court Judge Namal Walalle when the case was taken up in court this morning (03 May).
Accordingly, Judge Walalle had approved the Attorney General’s request to amend the charge sheet filed against Francis, after which it was decided that the case would be heard on 15 June.
On 16 December 2019, Francis was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court on the directions of the Attorney General, after she was named a suspect for a case of exciting disaffection against the Government and fabricating false evidence to be used in a future judicial proceeding.
She was later released on bail under two personal bonds of Rs. 500,000 each on 30 December.
Francis was accused of filing a false complaint at the Cinnamon Gardens Police in 2019, claiming that she had been abducted near St. Bridget’s Convent in Colombo and sexually harassed on 25 November, by an armed group who arrived in a white van.
