Court postpones FR petition on Greek bonds till next year

The Supreme Court has postponed the Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed against the Governor of the Central Bank over the controversial investment in Greek bonds till next year.

The petition filed by main Opposition United National Party (UNP) Parliamentarian Sujeewa Senasinghe will be taken up on 13 February. The petitioner says the investment in Greek bonds has been carried out at the behest of the respondent in an arbitrary manner with callous disregard to the citizenry of Sri Lanka and with corrupt and malicious intent of personal gain.

The Government in 2011 has lost US$ 6.6 million from the investment in Greek bonds. The Central Bank, however, said the investments in Greek bonds were a small fraction of its total Europe portfolio and the loss of the Greek bonds was comfortably offset by higher returns from other investments.

Meanwhile, UNP Parliamentarians Ravi Karunanayake and Sujeewa Senasinghe have lodged complaints with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption to probe the alleged irregularities that had taken place in the purchase of Greek bonds.