{"id":181899,"date":"2017-09-09T10:02:22","date_gmt":"2017-09-09T04:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=181899"},"modified":"2017-09-13T03:58:07","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T22:28:07","slug":"sil-redda-a-historic-judgement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/","title":{"rendered":"Sil Redda &#8211; A Historic Judgement\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><b>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Cassian+M+Fernando\">Cassian M Fernando<\/a> &#8211;<\/b><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_154971\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cassian-M-Fernando.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-154971\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-154971\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cassian-M-Fernando-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cassian-M-Fernando-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cassian-M-Fernando-50x50.jpg 50w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cassian-M-Fernando.jpg 189w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-154971\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cassian M Fernando<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The decision of the two judges of the High Court of Colombo regarding the misuse of public funds for the election campaign of Mahinda Rajapaksa in many ways is an epoch making historical<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>judgment. Firstly It was the first time that a high ranking public servant in this country, the Secretary to the Executive President was found guilty and sentenced to serve<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>a period of three years rigorous imprisonment. In addition a fine and also a decision to repay the 60 Million rupees lost in the process to the government.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Secondly it was also the first major judgment delivered<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>on many cases that are being investigated by the FCID an institution that was established for investigating cases of bribery and corruption.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>This is indeed a very healthy precedent and should be followed irrespective of political loyalties.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>It is not all public servants who behave in<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>this fashion About 10 percent of them yield to the pressures exerted on them by those in power. The judgment will serve as a<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>shield to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>the public servants to desist from giving into the pressures<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>exerted on them by the politicians,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>at least in the future.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Lalith-Weeratunga-and-Anusha-Palipita-Photo-Sunday-Times-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-181851\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Lalith-Weeratunga-and-Anusha-Palipita-Photo-Sunday-Times-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"847\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Lalith-Weeratunga-and-Anusha-Palipita-Photo-Sunday-Times-.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Lalith-Weeratunga-and-Anusha-Palipita-Photo-Sunday-Times--300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Lalith-Weeratunga-and-Anusha-Palipita-Photo-Sunday-Times--128x86.jpg 128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 847px) 100vw, 847px\" \/><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Mr Lalith Weeratunga or Mr Anusha Pelpita were<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>not<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Presidential candidates. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/weeratunga-and-palipta-get-three-years-rigorous-imprisonment\/\">They committed these acts of gross corruption on behalf of the Presidential Candidate<\/a> Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>As a matter of fact they acted as agents for the candidate Mr Mahinbda Rajapaksa.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>The fact of committing a serious<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>act of corruption has now being established by the decision of the High Court. The 6 million dollar question was raised by a JVP spokesmen who asked the penitent question whether<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>a case will be filled against Mr Mahinda Rajapalsa for commuting an election offense. Whether a candidate wins or loses if he commits an act of bribery or corruption<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>he faces the consequence of being taken to task by the law enforcing authorities. if found guilty the punishment spelled out in the legislation is that<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>such a person stands to lose his civic rights for a period of seven and half years from the date of such judgment <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">It is no wonder therefore that<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>rushed to meet his bosom<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>friend Ranil Wickremesinghe no sooner the judgment was delivered. Will a citizen take the bold step of filling a petition in the supreme courts seeking that civic rights of Mr Mahinda Rajapakasa be removed as he has being found guilty of committing an election offence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Having met his friend with whom it has been alleged<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>that he has already entered into a deal to prevent legal action<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>being taken against him on many charges that were leveled,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>he used his usual form of duplicity by making a TV statement that the government of Sri Lanka has for the first time found someone guilty for<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>performing a meritorious religious act of distributing Sil Cloth. People of this country are not fools. The judgment was not against performing a meritorious act of distributing Sil Clothes to the devoted ladies but doling out not less than 60 million rupees<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>of public funds during an election to boost the candidature of one of the contestants at the last presidential elections. . <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":154971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sil Redda - A Historic Judgement\u00a0 - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sil Redda - A Historic Judgement\u00a0 - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-09T04:32:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-12T22:28:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cassian-M-Fernando.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"189\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"189\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cassian M Fernando\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cassian M Fernando\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/\",\"name\":\"Sil Redda - A Historic Judgement\u00a0 - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cassian-M-Fernando.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-09T04:32:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-12T22:28:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8796f6446c2cac23b9d6a6d436bef07e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cassian-M-Fernando.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Cassian-M-Fernando.jpg\",\"width\":189,\"height\":189,\"caption\":\"Cassian M Fernando\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sil-redda-a-historic-judgement\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sil Redda &#8211; 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