Sri Lanka's HC jails Rajapakse top aide

Sri Lanka's High Court yesterday jailed a top civil servant for three years in the first corruption sanction against a member of former president Mahinda Rajapakse's government.

Lalith Weeratunga was also fined two million rupees and ordered to pay 50 million in damages for spending 600 million rupees ($4 million) of state cash on Rajapakse's failed re-election bid in 2015.

Weeratunga, then head of the civil service and Rajapakse's most senior aide, was found guilty of misappropriating money belongining to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), which he chaired.

The TRC director-general of the time Anusha Palpita was also jailed for three years for allowing its cash to be diverted to promote Rajapakse's election bid.

The court was told that 600 million rupees in gifts of textiles was given to Buddhist devotees along with Rajapakse's election propoganda material.

Election officials told the court they were aware of the distribution of parcels of cloth to voters and ruled it a violation of election laws.

"The charges against the two accused have been proved beyond reasonable doubt," High Court judge Gihan Kulatunga said.