Match-fixing laws by March
A draft Bill on the Prevention of Corruption and Match-Fixing in Sri Lanka which deems all sports-related corruption to be criminal offences attracting severe punishments has been sent to the Legal Draftsman’s Department for finalising.
The sanctions include a jail term of up to five years, a fine not exceeding Rs 5mn, or both fine and imprisonment. The draft includes amendments suggested by the Attorney General’s Department. A legal source confirmed that they are hoping the final draft will be ready by this week, to be presented to Parliament by March this year.
The new law will cover a wide range of corruption-related activities. They include engaging in betting, gambling, match-fixing, providing inside information for benefits, financial or otherwise, and any action that brings the sport into disrepute.
According to the Bill, concealing information, encouraging another person to conceal information, placing bets having received inside information and revealing such inside information to a third party to place bets also become criminal offences.
After a preliminary inquiry conducted by the Director General of Sports upon receipt of any information, a special unit–Sports Investigation Division (SED)–appointed by the Minister of Sports will further investigate, before asking law enforcement authorities for investigation and prosecution.
The SED, comprising seven members, will be headed by a retired Judge of the Appeal Court or the Supreme Court nominated by the Ministry of Justice and includes an attorney, a senior police office above the rank of SSP, two senior sportsmen and two members nominated by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption.
The proposed Bill is a major breakthrough in terms of tackling sports-related corruption and comes in the wake of a full blown inquiry by the International Cricket Council (ICC) into what they termed as “serious allegations of corruptions” in the island nation.
Though match-fixing is a criminal offence in a number of other cricketing nations, including England and Australia, Sri Lanka has delayed in bringing in laws to criminalize the offence until it reached boiling point with recent ICC investigations. Last year, three former Sri Lankan cricketers were charged with corruption. The ICC on January 16 granted a 15-day amnesty for Sri Lankan cricketers and officials to come clean and cooperate with the ongoing probe.