AG files indictment with 7,573 charges against Avant-Garde suspects

The Attorney General has filed indictment comprising 7,573 charges in Avant-Garde arms trafficking case against Chairman of Avant-Garde Nissanka Yapa Senadhipathi and other defendants.

The indictment was filed before the Trial-at-Bar in Colombo High Court, Attorney General’s Coordinating Officer Nishara Jayaratne said today (10).

The 7,573 charges including unlawful possession of automatic firearms and live ammunition rounds laid against Chairman of Avant-Garde, Nissanka Yapa Senadhipathi, former Rakna Lanka Chairman Major General (Rtd.) Waduge Palitha Piyasiri Fernando, former Rakna Lanka CEO Major General (Rtd.) Karunaratna Banda Adhikari Egodawele, former Senior Additional Secretary of Ministry of Defence Saman Dissanayake, Ukrainian captain of MV Avant-Garde Gennadiy Gavrylov, former Chairman of Rakna Lanka Victor Samaraweera, former Senior Assistant Secretary to Defence Ministry Sujatha Damayanthi Jayaratne, Rakna Lanka representative in MV Avant Garde Don Albert Thilakaratne, Commodore (Rtd.) Vishvajith Nandana Diyabalanage of Avant-Garde Maritime Services, General Manager of Rakna Lanka’s Ocean Security Unit Ponnuthurai Balasundaram Premachandra and Avant-Garde representative in MV Avant Garde Nilupul de Costa.

The Avant-Garde Maritime Services (Pvt) Limited and Rakna Arakshaka Lanka Limited have also been listed as the defendants in the case.

In the judicial history of Sri Lanka, this is considered the lawsuit in which an Attorney General laid the highest number of charges against the defendants.