Appeal Court to review Fonseka writ petition

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 February 2011, 12:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal (CA) Friday decided to conduct inquiry into the writ application by the former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) despite the preliminary objection the Attorney General, legal sources in Colombo said. The Attorney General (AG) requested the court to dismiss the writ application without inquiry as the Supreme Court had determined that the court martial is also court under the constitution of Sri Lanka. Sarath Fonseka has filed the Writ Application in the Court of Appeal against unseating him from the parliament following the order of a Court Martial.

The presiding Judge Ranjith Silva said that the petitioner should be allowed to present his case to ensure better justice.

Other judges were A.W.Salam and Upali Abeyratne.

The Appeal Court gave time till April 25 for the prosecution to file objections.

Sarath Fonseka lost in the presidential election held on January 26 last year to the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse. Later on April 8 the same year he was elected to parliament with the highest preferential vote from the Colombo district in the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) ticket.

A three-member bench of Court of Appeal put off further hearing in the writ application awaiting the determination on the constitutionality of the Court Martial by the Supreme Court following objection by the defense counsel.

The Supreme Court had determined that the court martial is also a court under the Constitution.