{"id":85235,"date":"2019-02-01T12:03:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T19:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=85235"},"modified":"2019-02-01T12:03:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T19:03:47","slug":"sri-lanka-soldier-will-not-qualify-for-diplomatic-immunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/02\/01\/sri-lanka-soldier-will-not-qualify-for-diplomatic-immunity\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka soldier will not qualify for diplomatic immunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Phil Miller at Westminster Magistrates Court\u00a0Courtesy Morning Star<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
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A SRI LANKAN soldier who made death threats to Tamil protesters while serving as a military attache in London should not qualify for diplomatic immunity, a court heard today.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Brigadier Priyanka Fernando, who no longer lives in Britain, had been convicted in absentia on January 21 of causing harassment, alarm and distress\u201d to three complainants.<\/p>\n

Westminster magistrates court issued a warrant for his arrest after watching video evidence of him making sinister slit-throat gestures at Tamil dissidents while standing outside his embassy.<\/p>\n

The guilty verdict caused alarm in Sri Lankan capital Colombo.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s ambassador was swiftly invited\u201d to a meeting with Sri Lanka\u2019s foreign minister on January 24 to discuss the law around diplomatic immunity.<\/p>\n

The court withdrew its arrest warrant on the same day.<\/p>\n

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\nPhoto:\u00a0<\/span>Sabeshraj Sathiyamoorthy<\/span><\/p>\n

The private prosecutors, who brought the case against Mr Fernando after the Metropolitan Police failed to act, were then summoned back to court for a hearing about diplomatic immunity today.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s Foreign Office provided the court with a certificate showing Mr Fernando did have diplomatic immunity when he committed the offence, although the department said it wished to remain neutral\u201d in this case.<\/p>\n

Private prosecutor Peter Carter QC then argued that the threatening act Mr Fernando committed was outside the scope of his diplomatic functions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicholas Wayne, a lawyer instructed at short notice by the Sri Lankan High Commission, appeared in court acting effectively on behalf of Mr Fernando.<\/p>\n

Mr Wayne said I\u2019m certainly not in a position to present any evidence straight away,\u201d and chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot adjourned the hearing until March 1.<\/p>\n

The brigadier remains convicted of public order offences.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Phil Miller at Westminster Magistrates Court\u00a0Courtesy Morning Star A SRI LANKAN soldier who made death threats to Tamil protesters while serving as a military attache in London should not qualify for diplomatic immunity, a court heard today. Brigadier Priyanka Fernando, who no longer lives in Britain, had been convicted in absentia on January 21 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}