Sri Lanka's jailed opposition legislator freed of graft charges

A leading opposition member who is currently serving a jail sentence was freed here Tuesday from bribery and corruption charges made against him.

S.B. Dissanayake, the national organizer of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), was facing charges in the Colombo High Court for his failure to account for his assets including money and property amounting to 48 million rupee (around 480,000 US dollars) between March 31, 1995 and Sept. 30, 2001.

Rohini Perera, the Colombo High Court judge in her ruling said the Bribery Commission was unable to prove charges against Dissanayake.

The Bribery Commission accused Dissanayake of accumulating assets which he could not have collected from his official salary and known income.

Dissanayake claimed the charge against him was politically motivated after he had quit the government of President Chnadrika Kumaratunga in October 2001 and crossed over to the UNP, having triggering the down fall of the Kumaratunga government.

He was elected a minister in the UNP government between 2001- 2004 and was sentenced to a two-year imprisonment in December last year on contempt of court charges.

The UNP has launched a campaign to pressurize Kumaratunga to free him from jail.

Source: Xinhua