The Supreme Court (SC) – which concluded the hearing of an appeal filed by the Attorney General (AG), requesting to revoke the verdict delivered by the Colombo High Court (CHC) to acquit a Sri Lankan suspect who is alleged to have raped an 18-year-old female of Korean origin in South Korea in 1998, and impose punishment on the relevant suspect – indefinitely postponed the declaration of the verdict.
The appeal filed by the AG was taken up before SC Judges, Justices Shiran Gooneratne, E.A.G.R. Amarasekara, and Janak de Silva.
The suspect, who was in South Korea in 1998, is alleged to have raped a Korean female aged 18 years. The Korean authorities had filed a case against the suspect in the respective court based on DNA evidence, but the suspect had been acquitted from the relevant case due to technical issues. He had later been deported to Sri Lanka. The Korean Government had then requested the Government of Sri Lanka to file a case against the suspect under the relevant agreement between the two countries, and the AG had filed a case before the CHC. Following a lengthy hearing of the case, the CHC had acquitted the suspect from the case.
Subsequently, the AG had filed an appeal against the relevant verdict before the Court of Appeal (CA). The CA had also established the CHC’s verdict and acquitted the suspect from the case. The AG then moved to file an appeal before the SC, seeking the revoking of the CHC’s verdict and punishment for the suspect. President’s Counsel (PC) Mohan Weerakoon represented the suspect, while the AG was represented by Senior Additional Solicitor General, Ayesha Jinasena PC.
Source: the daily morning
