Ex-Lankan president to be summoned again in corruption case

Sri Lanka's anti-graft commission is set to issue fresh summons against former president Mahinda Rajapakse to question him over bribery allegations, media reported on Sunday.

The bribery Commission had earlier issued a notice to Rajapakse in April which, however, led to protests by the opposition in and outside parliament, Xinhua reported.

The former leader, who was accused of bribing a former member of the ruling United National Party to join him ahead of the January elections, did not appear before the commission after Parliament Speaker Chamal Rajapakse summoned the commission chief and questioned the notice.

Director General of the Bribery Commission Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe told The Leader newspaper on Sunday that interrogation of the former president has not been withheld and will be carried out soon.

Wickramasinghe said the delay in getting statements from Rajapakse was not due to opposition lawmakers' agitation in parliament but a number of government holidays during May.

Referring to the allegations levelled against her by the opposition that she has no mandate to ask a former president to come to the commission for interrogation, Wickramasinghe said every citizen in Sri Lanka, irrespective of their status or positions, is equal before the law.

"If the parliamentarians think that the law of this land cannot be imposed on the rich and powerful but only against the poor and frail, then it is up to the legislative council that should pass that law," Wickramasinghe said.