Former Swiss embassy staffer given two-year suspended RI
July 14, 2023 01:20 pm
The Colombo High Court on Friday (14 July) sentenced Garnia Bannister Francis, a local employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo who was allegedly abducted in 2019, to two years of rigorous imprisonment.
Accordingly, Francis was fined Rs. 5,000 and sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment on orders of Colombo High Court Judge Namal Balalle.
He ordered, however, that the prison sentence be suspended for a period of five years.
On 16 December 2019, Francis was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court on the directives 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.
