Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, brother of Sri Lanka’s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was on Friday granted bail by a court here in the alleged floating armoury case.
Mr. Gotabhaya, a former top defence ministry official, and six others had been asked to appear in Colombo magistrate court under the corruption charges filed by the Bribery Commission.
They were accused of causing a loss of 11.4 billion rupees to the state exchequer by supporting a private firm to run the floating armory in the southern sea port of Galle.
Says he is not guilty
Mr. Gotabhaya (67) had publicly denied any wrongdoing.
Though the privately-owned company Avant-Garde Security Service said the weapons were for escorting commercial ships in anti-piracy operations, police had received complaints that the firearms were used for intimidation.
Mr. Gotabhaya became another member of the Rajapaksa family to get bail as several other family members of the the former President were subject to investigations over corruption.
Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s eldest son Namal was arrested for alleged money-laundering and is currently on bail and his younger brother Yoshitha is on bail after having faced money-laundering charges. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s other brother Basil, former Economic Development Minister, is also on bail.
The Rajapaksa family has described legal action as a “political witch-hunt” launched by the current government headed by Mr. Rajapaksa’s successor Maithripala Sirisena.
