SWISS EMBASSY STAFFER REMANDED TILL DECEMBER 30
The Swiss Embassy local staffer Garnier Banister Francis, who was arrested for providing fabricated statements to the CID, was yesterday ordered to be remanded till December 30, by Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayarathna.
The suspect was arrested after she gave a statement to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Angoda.
Earlier, the Attorney General (AG) instructed the CID to arrest the suspect for making falsified statements to the CID.
“The AG advised Director CID to arrest and name the Swiss Embassy local staffer as a suspect and produce her in court for exciting disaffection against the government and fabricating false evidence to be used in a judicial proceeding,”ag’s coordinating officer Nishara Jayaratne said.
The Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court yesterday issued a temporary travel ban till December 17 on Garnier Banister Francis who was allegedly threatened by a group of unidentified men.the magistrate directed her to provide a statement to the CID within the particular period.
When the case was taken up before Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne, Senior State Counsel Janaka Bandara said that, so far the CID had investigated two narrations of the abduction story.
“During the last couple of days, the CID had carried out the investigation and they had recorded several statements from the suspect. Investigation had commenced and after it had gone to certain extent lot of materials had emerged contrary to the first complaint lodged on the incident,” he informed the Court. The first story was recorded to the CID by Second Officer to the Swiss Ambassador Rahul Imbatch by filing a complaint about the incident, he said.
SSC Bandara said that according to the first complaint the identification of the then alleged victim Garnier Banister was not revealed properly.“in the written complaint provided by the Embassy official the victim has been mentioned “V” without mentioning her name alleging that she was abducted in front of St. Bridget’s Convent, Colombo 7, after attending to a parent teacher meeting,” he informed the Court.
His letter also mentioned that the alleged victim was abducted by five unknown people when she came out of the school and she was taken in a white car, he said.
The letter also stated,“she has been questioned for two hours during the incident and harassed.the letter was also mentioned that she was questioned about CID Investigation Officer Nishantha Silva and providing visa for him”.
Explaining the second version of the story SSC Bandara said that according the statement given by Ms. Francis to the CID, she had gone to the Palmyrah Apartment, Colombo 03, to meet a teacher attached to St. Bridget’s Convent to assist her with preparing her visa documents to travel Switzerland.
She claimed that the incident happened at the particular teacher’s apartment in Palmyrah Apartment building and she was sexually abused and assaulted inside the teacher’s apartment by unidentified men, SSC Bandara said.
Breaking the time line of the incident SSC Bandara said that the suspect lady had gone to the particular apartment at around 3.30 pm on November 25 and she came out from there at around 5.01 pm.
“When CID questioned about the time of the incident she told that the incident was happened after 5.01 pm and she had informed it to her husband on December 07,” he said.
However, SCC Banadara said that CCTV footage at the Palmyra Apartment premises shows that the suspect was going out of the apartment at 5.01 pm but she claimed that the incident happened at the apartment after 5.01 pm on November 25.
“This clearly shows that the suspect lady was trying to fabricate different stories to mislead the investigations conducting by the CID and it was very clear offence against the suspect,” SSC Bandara said.
He also said that the security officer of the suspect’s apartment in Maligakanda (where she lives) said that her family had gone from the apartment on December 27 saying that they were going abroad.
“However, she and her family had been residing in the Ambassador’s residence after the incident and that was the main reason that we could not locate her earlier to record a statement,” SSC Bandara said.
SSC Bandara also said that according to the investigation she had committed two offences under section 120 and 190 of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance.
“We can’t trust her, her statement is contradicting, and we have to investigate why she is fabricating such an incident to destroy the country’s image,” he said.
Appearing on behalf of the suspect, Counsel Upul Kumaraperuma informed the Magistrate that during the incident three unidentified men came to the particular teacher’s apartment and sexually harassed her.
Then Magistrate questioned that why she had not lodged a complaint to the nearby Police Station immediately. Responding to the question raised by the Magistrate, Counsel Kumaraperuma said that his client was threatened by the unidentified men saying that if she lodged any complaint her family will be killed.
“According to the trauma and the fear, she does not want to reveal anything about the incident,” he said.