The United National Party (UNP) has raised concerns over expenses related to the investigation into former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s UK visit, claiming that former official Aruna Fernando was paid £650 to provide evidence in the case recently.

Issuing a statement, the UNP said Aruna Fernando, who served as Chief Administrative Officer at the Sri Lanka High Commission in London during the tenure of High Commissioner Saroja Sirisena, had later left the post without proper notification. 

According to the UNP, Aruna Fernando appeared from Blackpool City before a team of Sri Lankan Police officers, when they visited London to collect evidence regarding the case.

The UNP further alleged that expenses for Wickremesinghe’s visit were arranged by Aruna Fernando, with direct support from Sky Wing Company owned by his associate, Saayi Mukundan.

In addition, the UNP said the government has spent a significant sum to send five Police officers to London for evidence gathering. 

Despite inquiries made under the Right to Information Act five months ago, no response has yet been provided regarding these costs, the UNP statement said. (Newswire)

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The case against eight Sri Lankan fishermen who are detained in Madagascar for engaging in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities will be taken up for hearing today (04 Aug).

According to the Sunday Times, the multi-day fishing vessel, which had departed from the Wellamankara fishing harbour on April 25, was seized by Madagascar’s maritime patrol on June 2 within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). 

At the time of seizure, it was reported that the crew failed to produce valid entry documents or fishing licenses and had tampered with navigation data and the Automatic Identification System (AIS). The vessel was also not flying a national flag at the time of its capture, complicating identification.

The Malagasy Police had also discovered 16,125 kilograms of frozen shark heads, 1,618 kilograms of dried shark fillets, 23 kilograms of dried shark fins, and 4 kilograms of dried shark gills aboard. The shark species are listed under Appendix II of the CITES agreement.

A previous court proceeding in Madagascar, conducted in French, was postponed to today due to the unavailability of a Sinhala-French translator. 

It is reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stepped in to provide a Sinhala-French interpretation for the upcoming court hearing to assist the fishermen who are detained in Madagascar.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Consular Affairs Division and in coordination with the Sri Lanka High Commission in Seychelles, accredited to Madagascar, has been actively engaged in the matter. (Newswire)

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The Colombo High Court has ordered to grant bail and release former minister Johnston Fernando from the case related to using employees of the Co-operative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) for election purposes.

On October 24, the court issued an arrest warrant for Johnston Fernando for failing to appear for the case hearing.

The Bribery Commission had filed a case on corruption against former minister Johnston Fernando, former CWE Chairman Eraj Fernando, and the former minister’s Private Secretary Raj Mohideen Mohammad Sakeer.

Johnston Fernando is accused of allegedly causing an unlawful loss of nearly Rs. 40 million to the government by employing 153 employees of Lanka Sathosa (CWE) for election work from 2010 -2014. (Newswire)

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