The Colombo High Court today sentenced a former land officer to 22 years of rigorous imprisonment for accepting a Rs. 100,000 bribe in 2016 to issue a permit for tree felling in the Mahaweli zone in Thambuttegama.

Delivering the verdict, High Court Judge Sujeewa Nissanka also imposed a Rs. 30,000 fine and ordered the bribe amount to be recovered as an additional penalty under the Bribery Act. 

The court further ordered that failure to pay the fine would result in an extra one-year simple imprisonment.

The 67-year-old convict, a resident of Anuradhapura, was also ordered to pay Rs. 100,000 in compensation to the complainant, who had sought a permit to cut trees purchased for transport to Moratuwa.

The accused was arrested by Bribery Commission officials during a sting operation on 14 March 2016. (Newswire)

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