|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Wednesday, 17 March 2004 |
 |
|
 |
News | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
by Wasantha Ramanayake A special Bench of the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed five Petitions of Appeal challenging the admissibility of confessions made to a Military Police Officer in the Mirusuvil Murder Trial that is being heard before a Trial-at-Bar in the Colombo High Court. The special Bench of Five Supreme Court Judges comprised Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva PC and Justices Dr.(Mrs.) Shirani Bandaranayake, Hector S. Yapa, Asoka de Silva and Nihal Jayasinghe. The court dismissed the same when the appellants counsel Dr. Ranjit Fernando moved to withdraw the appeals in view of an undertaking given by the Senior State Counsel (SSC) Sarath Jayamanne. The SSC gave an undertaking that the prosecution would not base their case on the confessions to the Military Officers by the Accused-petitioners in view of the Judgement in the Krishanthi Kumaraswamy Murder Appeal, where the Supreme Court included the Military Officer into the definition of the Police Officer in terms of Section 25 of the Evidence Ordinance holding that a confession made to a Military Officer could not be admissible as evidence. The accused-petitioners including R. M. S. Ratnayake of Anda-ulpotha, Mahiyanganaya, the five army personnel, cited the Attorney General (AG) as the respondent. They stated that the AG had indicted him with four others on 19 charges before Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar (TAB), in connection with the murder of eight villagers in Mirusuvil, Jaffna on December 19, 2000. The accused-petitioner made the instant application being aggrieved by the order of the TAB dated June 23. The TAB held that the confession made by the petitioner to an officer of the Military Police was admissible against the accused. In terms of the said order, a Military Army Officer was not a police officer within the meaning of Section 23 of the Evidence Ordinance. The petitioner sought to set aside the order of the TAB and an order that a confession made to a Military Police Officer by an Army personnel was a confession made to a "Police Officer" within the meaning of the Section 25 of the Evidence Ordinance. Dr. Ranjit Fernando appeared for accused-petitioners. SG C. R. de Silva with SSC Sarath Jayamanne appeared for the AG. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
