Colombo: A Sri Lankan court today
commenced hearing of the controversial 'white flag' case
against detained former Army Chief and Democratic National
Alliance (DNA) leader General Sarath Fonseka.
The trial-at-bar was taken up by the Colombo High
Court today with Judge Deepali Wijesundara presiding over the
case with judges H N P B Warawewa and Zurfick Razeen.
The main witnesses in the case - Defence Secretary
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Major General Shavendra Silva and Sri
Lanka's Permanent Representative in Geneva Kshenuka
Seneviratne - were present in the Court, news website Colombo
Page reported.
However, General Fonseka was not present today due to
ill health, the website said.
The Court told the witnesses that they would be
summoned when the need arises, and asked for a copy of the
notes taken by the Editor of local English weekly Sunday
Leader Frederic Jansz during the interview with General
Fonseka which created the 'white flag' controversy.
In the interview taken during the campaign for
presidential election in January this year, General Fonseka
reportedly told the newspaper that the Defence Secretary had
given orders to shoot senior LTTE leaders who surrendered with
white flags during the final stages of the war in May 2009.
Fonseka, who has already been stripped of his medals
by an army court martial for indulging in politics while in
service, had subsequently said he was quoted out of context by
the newspaper.
-PTI
First Published: Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 00:57