Ratwatte assets case: Bribery Commission may appeal

The Permanent Commission for Bribery or Corruption will look into the possibility of appealing in the case where former Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte was discharged by the Colombo High Court on Friday of allegations of failing to account for assets amounting to Rs. 46 million.

“We will wait for the official copy of the order and study it, before deciding on the appeal,” Commission Chairman Amir Ismail told The Sunday Times yesterday. The Court held that Mr. Ratwatte’s answers to 25 questions posed by the Bribery Commission had not been rejected by the Commission and therefore without fulfilling a basic requirement the Court does not have jurisdiction to give a ruling on the case.

High Court judge Ms. Deepali Wijesundara held that though 25 witnesses had been called to give evidence in the case Mr. Ratwatte cannot be held guilty when the basic requirement had not been fulfilled. The questions about his assets had been sent to Mr. Ratwatte before the case and though responses were sent to all questions, the Commission had failed to inform him that it rejected the responses.

Earlier defence counsel argued that since the Bribery Commission had not rejected the answers sent by Mr. Ratwatte the trial could not be continued. Deputy Solicitor General Jayantha Jayasuriya for the prosecution argued that the objections should have been raised at the beginning of the trial.

Mr. Ratwatte was indicted by the Bribery Commission on the grounds he was unable to account for his assets amounting to Rs. 46 million which had accumulated between the period March 31, 1997 to August 31, 2002 - a period when he was a Cabinet Minister and Deputy Minister of Defence.

Part of Mr. Ratwatte’s assets were in the form of Certificates of Deposits in private banks. DSG Jayantha Jayasuriya with Senior State Counsel Shanil Kularatne appeared for the prosecution. Rienzie Arseculratne PC with Wasantha Batagoda and Thejitha Koralage appeared for Mr. Ratwatte.