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| Thursday, 25 March 2004 |
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Court of Appeal reaffirms sentence in G.C. Wickremasinghe abduction and ransom case by Indeewara Thilakarathne The Court of Appeal on Tuesday reaffirmed the sentence on the accused in the abduction and multi-million rupee ransom case of the Chairman of the Aitken Spence G. C. Wickremasinghe but varied the sentences from the period of 80 years' Rigorous Imprisonment to 36 years' RI for the 1st, 2nd and the 3rd accused while the sentence on the other ten accused was reduced to 31 years RI each. The bench comprised Justices Raja Fernando and Nimal Gamini Amaratunga. Earlier, 15 accused were indicted in the Colombo High Court on chages of conspiracy, abduction and extortion of a sum of Rs. 200 million from the Chairman of Aitken Spence G.C. Wickremasinghe. They were also charged with conspiring to abduct Wickremasinghe along with his driver Nandasena with the intention of murder or to endanger his life. Some of the accused were charged with aiding and abetting the abduction. The prosecution led by President's Counsel Solicitor General C.R. De Silva submitted that first five accused were involved in the physical abduction of Wickremasinghe and confined him at a undisclosed location for a period of 12 hours. The abduction took place at the Kingsey Road / Castle Street junction when G. C. Wickremasinghe was on his way to the golf course on 30 March 1999. He was blindfolded and taken to a secret location in his high-jacked vehicle and kept there until a sum of Rs. 200 million was paid as a ransom for his release. The Counsel for the first five accused/appellants, Dr. Ranjith Fernando submitted that the charge of abduction with the intention of murder or endangering the life of G.C. Wickremasinghe was inconsistent with the humane way in which the abductors treated G. C. Wickremasinghe and that the intention of the abductors was only to obtain a sum of Rs. 200 million from Wickremasinghe. He further submitted that under those circumstances, the term of imprisonment that ran up to 80 years could not be justified in terms of the gravity of the offence. Counsel for other five accused, Ranjith Abesuriya PC submitted that the identification of the accused was done hurriedly and would have only given a fleeting glance to the victim. He urged for a total acquittal. Solicitor General C.R. De Silva PC with S.S.C. Buwaneka Aluvihare and H. Jayasundara appeared for the prosecution. Ranjith Abesuriya PC with Dinusha Mirihana, Shyamane Gunaratne and Lanka de Silva for 5 of the Acc/Applts. Dr. Ranjith Fernando with Sandamali Munasinghe, Sandamali Manatunga and Kaweendra Nanayakkara for five of the accused. Dr. Jayampathi Wickremaratne PC with Pubuduni Wickremaratne for the 9th and 10th Acc/Applts and Duminda Weerasuriya appeared for the 13th applt. |
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