Sri Lanka creates special courts for Rajapakse-era graft
Posted on May 10th, 2018

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia

Colombo, May 10 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s parliament Wednesday voted to set up special courts to try multi-billion dollar graft cases under former president Mahinda Rajapakse.

The move aims to accelerate several high-profile cases following criticism over the slow pace of justice since President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in 2015 promising to stamp out corruption.

Parliament voted 119-52 to create high courts to take up white collar crimes and reduce the backlog of cases.

The new courts will reduce pressure on the criminal justice system and help speed up hearings,” Justice Minister Thalatha Atukorale said.

The choice of which cases will be taken up by the new courts will be made by the chief justice to ensure that no political pressure is involved, she added.

Sirisena came to power three years ago pledging to punish members of the former administration accused of stealing vast sums during Rajapakse’s decade in power.

Rajapakse loyalists in the 225-member parliament voted against the bill.

Sirisena has said up to half of all public procurement contracts under the Rajapakse administration were corrupt, and his government has renegotiated several multi-billion dollar projects.

Rajapakse’s chief aide Lalith Weeratunga has already been convicted of misappropriating $4 million and sentenced to three years in prison.

Two of the former president’s three sons have been charged with money-laundering and other relatives face corruption allegations.

Rajapakse, who is not under investigation, denies any wrongdoing and accuses his successor of a witch hunt

One Response to “Sri Lanka creates special courts for Rajapakse-era graft”

  1. Dilrook Says:

    Excellent move.

    Those who voted against the bill are national traitors who want to rob the poor nation its fortunes and turn more Sinhala women into slaves in the middle east.

    All those who truely love the nation must support it. Once set up these courts cannot be dismantled. They will try bond crooks and other fraudsters of this regime as well under a different government in future. Their frauds are much higher.

    Had Mahinda punished Ravi, Ranil, Bathurdeen, Paskeralingam, Rajitha and a host others when he was the president, the nation would have been saved from many a disaster. Hope Sirisena is not doing this national crime anymore. But he is part of the new corruption system and it is up to him to prove otherwise.

    Politicians collaborating with each other is the biggest disaster of Lankan politics. If politicians are at each others’ throats, people and the nation are the obvious beneficiaries. People must demand animosity and retaliation from politicians to serve them better and punish the corrupt. As it is known, corruption is far worse than terrorism.

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