Date : 29/08/2024
Case number : HC(TAB) 2972/21
Brief update:
All accused were present before the court.
The case was taken up before the Trial at Bar to check whether the 3rd, 7th, 8th,11th 12th,18th,19th, 20th and 21st accused have retained new lawyers on behalf of them as Mr. N.M. Shaheid, the Attorney at Law who appeared for them will not appear in the future. The junior counsel of the said senior counsel informed the court that the relevant accused were not able to retain lawyers and requested further two weeks to appoint lawyers on behalf of them.
The 6th Accused informed the court that there is no lawyer appearing for him and not able to pay legal fees for a lawyer. However, Mr. Niroshan Siriwardhana Attorney at law appeared for him today only for the purpose of corrections of proceedings. The accused gave consent to the said lawyer to appear on behalf of him for the correction of proceedings.
Mr. Sajith Bandara, State counsel of the Attorney General’s Department conducted the correction session. Some necessary corrections of the previous proceedings dated 09/05/2024, 14/05/2024, 15/05/2024, 16/05/2024, 21/05/2024, 28/05/2024, 29/05/2024, 30/05/2024, 04/06/2024, 05/06/2024, 06/06/2024, 11/06/2024, 12/06/2024, 13/06/2024, 19/06/2024, 27/06/2024 and 21/08/2024 were made.
PW 2051, PW 2055 and PW 2055 were present before the court and they were released and advised to present before the court once they receive summons.
The 11th accused informed the court that initially the court assigned a counsel for him and he had handed over the indictment and attachments to that Counsel. However the counsel had not returned those documents to the accused when he retained a counsel. According to the accused, retained counsel has used other accused’s documents because he appeared for few accused. Accordingly the court ordered to send notices to the assigned counsel to appear before the court in the next hearing to return the relevant documents.
The case will be taken up on the 04th of September 2024 at 1 p.m. as a calling date to check whether the lawyers appear for all the accused.
