Swiss Embassy local staffer remanded

Colombo Chief Magistrate today ordered the remand of the suspect, Swiss Embassy local staffer- Garnier Banister Francis till December 30 for providing fabricated statements to the CID.

The CID had arrested Swiss Embassy local staffer - Garnier Banister Francis after providing her statement to the Mental Health Institute, Angoda yesterday.

The Attorney General had instructed the CID to arrest the individual in charge of fabricating false statement to the CID.

When the case was taken up before Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne, Senior State Counsel Janka Bandara said that so far the CID had investigated two narrations of the abduction story.

“The last couple of days, the CID had carried out the investigation and it had recorded several statements from the suspect. The investigation had commenced and after it had gone to a 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 and she was abducted in front of St. Bridget’s Convent after attending to a parent-teacher meeting,” he informed the Court.

His letter also mentioned that then 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.

“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,” SSC Bandara said.

Explaining the second version of the story SSC Bandara said that according to the statement given by Ms. Francis to the CID, she had gone to the Palmyra Apartment 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 Palmyra Apartment building and she was sexually abused and assaulted inside the teacher's apartment by unidentified men, SSC Bandara said.

Breaking the timeline 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 happened after 5.01 pm and she had informed it to her husband on December 07," he said.

However, SCC Bandara said that CCTV footages at the Palmyra Apartment premises show 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 a very clear offence against the suspect,” SSC Bandara said.

He also said that the security officer of the suspect Ganiner Banister Francis's apartment in Maligakanda said that her family had gone from the apartment on December 27 saying that they were going abroad.

"However, she and her family had resided 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.

The Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court yesterday issued a temporary travel ban till December 17 on the Swiss Embassy employee, who was allegedly threatened by a group of unidentified men on November 25.

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 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 truth about the incident,” he said. (Yoshitha Perera)

Pic by Lahiru Harshana