Court order tomorrow on Alles, Basnayake

Former Airport Aviation Authority Chairman Tiran Alles and Mavubima Publisher Dushyantha Basnayaka have been given time till tomorrow to raise objections against a court decision to impound their passports pending investigations against them.

The case will be taken up before Colombo Chief Magistrate Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena tomorrow. The Sunday Times learns that the Terrorist Investigations Division (TID) probing allegations against Mr. Basnayaka who is being detained by the TID and Mr. Alles has requested high confidentially about the files pertaining to the case.

An attempt by the court to serve notice on Mr. Alles had failed earlier this week and until yesterday the notice had not been served.

Until Friday evening the Controller of Immigration had not been informed of the decision about impounding of their passports.
Mr. Basnayaka, who is also a director of the CBE Group of Companies which provides mobile phone services to the north and east, was arrested in his office in Borella on Monday and is being questioned by the TID. Three days after his arrest, the Defence Ministry issued a directive to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) to ban the sale of all telecommunication services using third parties with immediate effect in the northern and eastern provinces.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) said it had conducted comprehensive investigations into the activities of all distributors of telecommunication products during the past six months before taking the decision. “The investigations revealed that the LTTE had penetrated into the distribution network of retailers of telecommunication products and was using them for terrorism.