Gotabaya permitted to travel overseas

The Permanent High Court-at-Bar has temporarily lifted the travel ban which had been imposed on former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa preventing him from traveling overseas.

The order was issued when the case filed against the former Defense Secretary and six others for allegedly misappropriating Rs 33.9 million of state funds to build the D.A. Rajapaksa Memorial Museum, was taken up for hearing today (15).

The case was heard before the trial-at-bar bench comprising High Court Judges Sampath Abeykoon (President), Sampath Wijeratne and Champa Janaki Rajaratne.

Attorneys representing Gotabaya Rajapaksa informed the court that their client requires to travel overseas from March 26 to April 12 and therefore requested that the overseas travel ban be lifted temporarily.

The court accepted the request and granted permission for Rajapaksa to travel abroad while also ordering the release of his passport.

Indictments were filed under the Public Property Act against the seven accused; former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, members of the director board of Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (LRDC) Chairman Prasad Harshan de Silva, Bhadra Udulawathi Kamaladasa, Sudammika Keminda Artigala, Saman Kumara Abraham Galappatti, Devage Mahinda Saliya and Srimathi Mallika Kumari Senadheera, under seven counts for allegedly misappropriating LRDC funds of Rs.33.9 million.