Wimal Weerawansa fails to appear in court, Warrant issued for his arrest

COLOMBO (News 1st); A warrant was issued for the arrest of Former Sri Lankan Minister Wimal Weerawansa for failing to appear in court for a legal matter on Monday (19).

The case filed for staging a protest obstructing the main road opposite the UN Compound in Colombo, and for disrupting public order and vehicular movement on the day Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein visited Sri Lanka in 2016, was taken up in the presence of Colombo Chief Magistrate Prasanna De Alwis on Monday (19).

Wimal Weerawansa, who was named as the first suspect in the case, did not appear in court.

Weerakumara Dissanayake, another suspect in the case, also did not appear in court on Monday (19), and he produced a medical report to the court via an attorney.

The other suspects in the case Mohamed Muzammil, Jayantha Samaraweera, Roger Seneviratne, and Piyasiri Wijenayake appeared in court on Monday (19).

The Colombo Chief Magistrate noted that the suspects taking turns to not appear whenever the case is called up would lead to a situation where the case could never be examined.

The Chief Magistrate announced in open court that if the suspects continue to evade court, they would also be placed in remand custody in order to examine the matter.