Avant Garde captain remanded

The Mt.Avant Garde ship Captain Jenelly Geliva, a Ukrainian arrested by the Criminal Investigation Dept.officers was produced before Galle Chief Magistrate, Nilupuli Lankapura who ordered him to be remanded till July 5, 2016.

The Sri Lanka Navy which impeached the Avant Garde ship on suspicion seized a cache of firearms and ammunition including 549, T56 guns, 204674 ammunition labelled 84 S.264 and 2 LMG firearms.

The ship had been anchored at the Galle harbour old jetty. The CID later took over the investigations from the Galle Harbour Police.

When the case was called last week (23), Lawyers appearing for the Ceylon Shipping Company sought the Ukrainian Captain release since he should leave the country as his contract of employment had expired.

The CID which did not object to his release later on the same day filed a motion in the court seeking his arrest under the permission of Explosions Act and Firearms Ordinance an advice from the Attorney General.

According the suspect was remanded by the magistrate. Lawyers appearing for the suspect captain submitted that the firearms in question were owned by the Rakna Lanka company with had obtained approval from the Ministry of Defence.

Inspector Senarath of the CID and State Counsel Janaka Bandara led the prosecution while attorney-at-law A.P.G. Sarathchandra with attorney-at-law Sampath Mendis appeared for the suspect.