Court Directs Trial Against Johnston to Continue

COLOMBO (News 1st); A five-judge bench of the Court of Appeal today ordered that the case filed against former Minister Johnston Fernando and other accused over allegations of causing a loss of nearly Rs. 60 million to the State by deploying employees of the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) for non-official duties and paying their salaries and overtime allowances using State funds should proceed before the High Court.

The ruling was delivered by a five-judge bench comprising Justices P. Kumararatnam, D. Thotawatta, K.M.S. Dissanayake, K.P.E. Fernando and Annalingam Premashankar.

Former Co-operatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando has been named as the first accused in the case. Former Chairman of the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment Eraj Fernando has been named as the second accused, while former Acting Director Kaja Mohideen Mohamed Shakir has been named as the third accused.

They have been charged under Section 70 of the Bribery Act.

Investigations conducted by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption had revealed that between 2010 and 2014, employees of the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment were allegedly assigned to duties unrelated to their official responsibilities, while their salaries and overtime payments were made using funds belonging to the institution, resulting in a financial loss to the State.

Based on those findings, indictments were filed before the Colombo High Court in 2022.

The accused raised preliminary objections, arguing that the investigation had been initiated without the full approval of the Commission and that applying the Bribery (Amendment) Act No. 22 of 2018 retrospectively was unlawful.

However, after examining the submissions, the five-judge bench of the Court of Appeal allowed the revision application filed by the Bribery Commission, set aside a High Court order that had acquitted the accused in one of the cases, and dismissed all revision applications filed by the accused.

Accordingly, the Court ordered that the relevant High Court cases against the accused be proceeded with.

The judgment is being viewed as an important legal guideline on the powers vested in the Bribery Commission when initiating investigations into bribery and corruption-related offences, as well as the legality of instituting High Court proceedings under the Bribery (Amendment) Act No. 22 of 2018. The ruling also points to a significant precedent in the enforcement of anti-corruption laws in Sri Lanka.