SL High Court to decide on using Fonseka video on white flag case

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 November 2010, 17:57 GMT]
The three member bench of the Colombo High Court Monday said that it would decide on Wednesday whether the edited video speech of Sarath Fonseka, the former commander of the Sri Lanka Army, produced by the Attorney General could be accepted as evidence against him in a case in which he is indicted with causing disrepute to the government by a giving an interview to the Sunday leader, English weekly. Sarath Fonseka in that interview had alleged that the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had instructed the Major General Shavendra Silva not to spare any LTTE member who came holding white flags, but to shoot them all dead.

In this connection the prosecution at the last date of inquiry made an application to court seeking permission to produce an edited version of the video clip regarding the speech made by Sarath Fonseka in Ratnapura against the accused.

But the defense counsel objected that without the raw footage of the speech made by Sarath Fonseka at a rally in Ratnapura as the presidential candidate the edited video footage could not be used as evidence against him.

The Deputy Solicitor General submitted to court on behalf of the Attorney General that there was legal provision to include such videos as evidence.

The court then ordered the private TV station which covered the Ratnapura election rally to produce the raw footage of the speech made by Sarath Fonseka at the next date of inquiry.

When the inquiry in this case resumed Monday the private TN station that covered the said Ratnapura election rally informed court that the raw footage of the Fonseka speech was not available.

After hearing the submissions of the prosecution and the defense the court said that it would deliver its order on December 1 whether the edited video speech of Sarath Fonseka at Ratnapura rally could be accepted as evidence against the accused.

Chronology: