Ruling on Gotabhaya's revision petition on Avante Garde case fixed for Aug 30

The date of issuing a ruling on a revision petition filed by former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, over the Avant Garde illegal floating armoury case, has been fixed for August 30 by the Appeal Court.

Rajapaksa had filed a revision petition at the Appeal Court seeking to overturn two verdicts issued by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court and the High Court over the case previously.

The Bribery Commission had filed a case at the Colombo Magistrate’s court naming Rajapaksa and a few others as suspects for causing losses worth Rs 11.4 billion to the government by permitting operations of the Avante Garde floating armoury.

The former defence secretary had filed an appeal petition arguing that the manner in which the Bribery Commission had filed the case against him was unlawful.

However, the Colombo Magistrate’s court had previously rejected preliminary objections put forward by Rajapaksa’s lawyers on the case, and had decided to proceed with court hearings.

The former Defence Secretary’s revision petition filed at the High Court against the Colombo Magistrate court’s ruling too had been rejected afterwards.