Puttalam District MP Ali Sabri Raheem has been suspended from Parliament for a period of one month with effect from Wednesday (March 06).
A resolution proposing the suspension of Raheem from parliamentary proceedings was approved by the MPs during today’s proceedings.
Raheem was embroiled in controversy last year after he was detained at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Colombo on May 23 along with a stock of undeclared stock of gold and mobile phones.
The officials of Revenue Task Force Directorate of Sri Lanka Customs at the airport’s VIP terminal ‘Gold Route’ had impounded more than 3kg of undeclared gold jewellery and 91 mobile phones from the possession of the parliamentarian who was returning to the island from Dubai. The total value of the seized items were estimated to have exceeded Rs. 78 million.
Later, the MP was fined Rs. 7.5 million and released on payment of same while the undeclared gold and mobile phones have been confiscated.
