Category: Legal

June 05, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s courts have ordered the liquidation of Touchwood, a controversial forestry investment company, but a appeal of the decision is planned, a media report said.Meanwhile recent media reports said trees in some forestry plantations and some investors were attempting to prevent it. Adaderanabiz.lk, a Colombo based business news portal […]

SYDNEY, June 2, 2014 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seeker has died after setting himself on fire while awaiting a visa decision in Australia, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Monday.Leorsin Seemanpillai, 29, who was living in Geelong, outside Melbourne, after being granted a temporary visa a year ago, suffered burns to 90 percent of […]

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28, 2014 (AFP) – The United Nations refugee agency and Human Rights Watch on Wednesday decried Malaysia’s deportation of two Sri Lankan refugees and an asylum-seeker accused of being Tamil Tiger separatists.“Malaysia’s forced return of these refugees to Sri Lanka is no free pass for torture and mistreatment,” Phil Robertson, the rights […]

WELLINGTON, May 27, 2014 (AFP) – People-smugglers are looking to target New Zealand now that Australia’s tough border protection policies have effectively “closed down” that country to asylum-seeker boats, Prime Minister John Key said Tuesday.While the voyage to New Zealand from places such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka is potentially far more perilous than trying […]

May 25, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Tobacco Company Plc, a unit of British American Tobacco said it had gone to Supreme Court again over new labeling regulations, shortly after a court ruling that allowed graphical warnings.The recent court ruling allowed graphic labels covering 50 to 60 percent of the area of a pack […]

KUALA LUMPUR, May 25, 2014 (AFP) – Three men suspected of being Tamil Tigers have been arrested in Malaysia, a top police official said Sunday, accusing them of attempting to revive the Sri Lankan separatist group. Khalid Abu Bakar, inspector-general of police, said the trio, who had been in Malaysia since 2004, were arrested in […]

May 22 (AFP) A British tourist thrown out of Sri Lanka for sporting a Buddha tattoo is suing local authorities for $78,000 over her ordeal, which allegedly included sexual harassment, her lawyer said Thursday. Naomi Coleman filed the action in the Supreme Court in Colombo on Wednesday seeking 10 million rupees ($78,000) in compensation from […]

KATHMANDU, May 21, 2014 (AFP) – South Asia’s corruption-fighting agencies lack the power and independence to properly investigate politicians and officials for graft entrenched in the region, a watchdog said Wednesday.A report released by Berlin-based Transparency International said many agencies need their government’s consent to investigate suspected graft cases, while others face massive political interference […]

May 19, 2014 (LBO) – A legislator has renewed a call to publish audited accounts of Sri Lanka’s Employees Provident Fund and table them in the parliament amid concerns over the purchase of some fundamentally weak shares at high prices during a stock market bubble.Sri Lanka’s EPF, which represents pension contributions of private sector employees […]

May 12, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal has approved graphic pictorial warnings on tobacco packs after Ceylon Tobacco Company challenged new health ministry rules.Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror newspaper said in its website that the Court of Appeal had dismissed a write application by CTC and allowed graphic health warnings covering 50 to […]

May 09, 2014 (LBO) – A revenue official was jailed for 102 years on 34 counts related to a value added tax refund fraud and fined 12 billion rupees (91 million US dollars) along with several businessmen, a report said.The case involved the fraudulent refunds of value added tax involving amounting to 3.9 billion rupees, […]

COLOMBO, May 5, 2014 (AFP) – Four of Sri Lanka’s most senior hardline Buddhist monks appeared in court Monday accused of insulting the Koran, in the first such case following a spate of religious hate attacks. Police established a new unit last week to investigate hate crimes in the wake of the violence, which raised […]