Sathosa bribery case fixed for May 10

The case filed against three accused including former minister Johnston Fernando for excluding Sathosa employees from their duties and engaging them for political activities, was yesterday fixed for May 10 by the Colombo High Court.

The case was taken up before Colombo High Court Judge Manjula Thilakaratne.

The case was filed against former minister Johnston Fernando when he was acting as the Trade Minister, former CWE (Lak Sathosa) Chairman Eraj Fernando and former Minister’s Private Secretary Raj Mohideen Mohammad Zakeer for allegedly causing an unlawful loss to the government by enlisting the employees of the Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (CWE) for election work.

The Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption filed these corruption cases against the three accused under Section 70 of the Bribery Act on four charges.

The three accused including former minister Johnston Fernando had previously been prosecuted by the Bribery Commission and those cases were dismissed due to their being filed without the written consent of three commissioners of the Bribery Commission.