Judges should not give personal judgments in the hopes of gaining financial benefits, High Court judge W.M.P.D. Waraweva, who gave the dissenting judgment in the Sarath Fonseka court case, stated in open court today (January 10).

He stated this after giving the verdict in a murder case.

He stated that judges should not give judgments and verdicts in the hopes of gaining personal benefits or in fear of losing their luxuries while judgments should not be given with the hopes of putting an individual in trouble or assisting another.

Waraweva said that he has always given his judgments according to his Buddhist faith and that he has never worked with the purpose of pulling cases from other courts towards him.

The High Court gave the death penalty to the two accused murder suspects after finding them guilty.

Last November, Sarath Fonseka was found guilty by a divided decision in the case regarding the ‘White Flag’ statement and sentenced to 3 years in prison by the Colombo High Court today (November 18).

The verdict divided 2:1 was given by the High Court bench, headed by Judge Deepali Wijesundara and comprising Judges DMPD Waraweva and Zulfiqar Razin.

Justice Waraweva giving his judgment deliberated that Fonseka was not guilty on all three charges while Justice Wijesundara and Rashim found Fonseka guilty of the first charge, of inciting violence through his statement, and found him not guilty on the second and third charges.