International Red Warrant against Basil Rajapaksa

Fort Magistrate Pasan Amaraseena has informed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that if an international warrant is required against former Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa, who is connected to the incident of misappropriation of funds belonging to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, an affidavit should be submitted and the necessary steps taken. The Magistrate made this notification to the CID's Illegal Assets Unit yesterday (10) when the relevant case was called.

It is reported that a sum of Rs. 7.8 million allocated to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau in 2014 was spent on purchasing 12,000 T-shirts for the Uva Provincial Council election campaign, instead of being used for its intended promotional activities. The Illegal Assets Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department has filed this case based on this incident, which caused a financial loss to the government.

During the trial, the Criminal Investigation Department requested the court to issue a notice to the first suspect, former Minister Basil Rajapaksa. However, the Magistrate rejected this request, pointing out that warrants had already been issued against this suspect at the initial stage, and therefore there was no need to issue further notices. Instead, he advised that if an international warrant is required, an affidavit related to it should be submitted to the court and action taken accordingly.

Meanwhile, the Magistrate yesterday ordered the remand of Raumi Jaufer, a former Managing Director of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, against whom the court had previously issued warrants in connection with the same financial fraud incident, until the 17th. Furthermore, the court also took steps to release Baswar Gunawardena, the former chairman of the same bureau, who has been named as the second suspect in the incident, on two personal bails of Rs. 10 million each.