High Court acquits SF from HiCorp case

• States he cannot be tried on same charges twice
• Dhanuna to be tried in absentia

By T. Farook Thajudeen

Colombo High Court Judge Sunil Rajapaksa yesterday acquitted former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka from all charges and dismissed the application filed by the Attorney General regarding the HiCorp case, stating that he could not be tried twice on the same charges as he had already been charged for it in the second court martial.

Former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka is all smiles coming out of the Colombo High Court after he was acquitted from the HiCorp case  Pic by Romesh Dhanushka De Silva

However, the Court fixed the trial against Fonseka’s son-in-law Dhanuna Thilakaratne who was also charged in the same case to be heard in absentia on 3 May.

The High Court Judge made this order consequent to a preliminary objection raised by Fonseka’s Counsel Saliya Pieris on the indictment filed by the Attorney General on 9 July 2010.

The Counsel in his preliminary objection challenged that the prosecution had made use of the same components to indict Fonseka in the second court martial and in the present case before the Colombo High Court and submitted to dismiss the case as Fonseka could not be charged on the same charges twice.

He argued that although the title in the two cases differed, they had been framed on the same ingredients.

The components that were used under Section 109 of the Army Ordinance in the second court martial had also been made use in the Colombo High Court case, he argued.

The 25-page judgment by Rajapaksa read over by interpreter Mudliyar S.A.M. Nafli affirmed that according to the law and the judicial procedure, it would be unjust to indict an accused twice on same charges and acquitted Fonseka.

In this case the Attorney General indicted the former Army Commander’s son-in-law Dhanuna Thilakaratne, Wellington DeHoedt and Fonseka for defrauding public funds in the name of the locally-registered HiCorp Private Company by forwarding forged documents to the Sri Lanka Army and fraudulently acting as an agent for British Borneo Defence Company in Australia and that the funds obtained had been deposited in an account at the Bank of America under the name of Dhanuna Thilakaratne.

Senior State Counsel Damith Totawatte and Sudarshana De Silva prosecuted. Senior Counsel Saliya Pieris with Rukshan Nanayakkara instructed by Paul Ratnayake Associates defended. Counsel Asela Rekawa with Amila Perera defended Thilakaratne.