Major General Palitha Fernando and four other accused in the Avant-Garde floating armoury case have been granted bail by the Permanent High Court-at-Bar.

The case filed by the Attorney General’s Department over the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition inside the M.V. Avant Garde vessel anchored off the Hikkaduwa coast near the Galle Harbour, without a proper license, was taken up before the court today (27).

Accordingly the three-member judge bench ordered the release on bail of 5 accused in the case including Retired Maj. Gen. Palitha Fernando, Retired Maj. Gen. B. Egodawela, former Secretary of the National Police Commission Saman Dissanayake and former Chairman of Rakna Lanka Victor Samaraweera.

The judge bench comprising Justices Dhammika Ganepola, Adithya Patabendige and Manjula Thilakaratne ordered each defendant released on a cash bail of Rs 500,000 and two personal bails of Rs 2.5 million each. 

However, they were barred from leaving the country without obtaining prior permission from the court and ordered to hand over their passports to the court. 

In addition to this another three defendants who had previously been released on bail by the Galle High Court were also produced before the Permanent High Court-at-Bar today and they were ordered released on previous bail by the court. 

The case was postponed until November 08.