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MiG deal suspect Udayanga gets bail on ‘extraordinary grounds’
Udayanga Weeratunga, onetime Sri Lanka Ambassador to Russia and allegedly involved in the embezzlement of state funds over the procurement of MiG-27 fighter jets from Ukraine, was released on “extraordinary grounds” from remand custody on Friday.
This was after Senior State Counsel Udara Karunatilleke told Colombo’s Chief Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake in written submissions that the Attorney General’s Department had “no objections” to granting bail.
Mr. Weeratunga was first produced in Court on February 14. This was after Mr Weeratunga was accompanied to Colombo by two officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from Abu Dhabi, in a SriLankan Airlines flight. He had earlier been arrested by the Dubai Immigration authorities on an international warrant issued by Interpol – the International Police Headquarters based in Paris. The CID officers were also in possession of an arrest warrant from the Magistrate’s Court in Colombo.
The CID who earlier produced him at the Chief Magistrate’s Court submitted a certificate in accordance with the Public Property Act. After remaining at the Prison Hospital, Mr Weeratunga was transferred to the Colombo General Hospital from where he was released.
Chief Magistrate Dissanayake ordered that Mr Weeratunga be released on two sureties of Rs 50 million each and a cash bail of Rs 2.5 million. He placed a deadline of May 24 by which time the bail conditions should be fulfilled. He also banned the former envoy from leaving
Sri Lanka.
Earlier, Mr. Weeratunga’s lawyers requested court to grant their client bail on extraordinary grounds and Chief Magistrate Dissanayake ordered them to make their submissions for bail. Senior State Counsel Karunatilleke made written submissions on March 25 stating that the Attorney General “had no objection to granting bail.”
Attorneys Asith Siriwardena with Rasanga Harischandra appeared for
Mr Weeratunga.