Rajapaksa's brother gets bail in floating armory case

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, brother of Sri Lanka's former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was today granted bail by a court here in the alleged floating armoury case which caused a loss of Rs 11.4 billion to the state exchequer.
Former top defense ministry official Gotabhaya and six others had been asked to appear in Colombo magistrate court under the corruption charges filed by the Bribery Commission.
They were accused of causing a loss of 11.4 billion rupees to the state exchequer by supporting a private firm to run the floating armory in the southern sea port of Galle.
Gotabhaya, 67, had publicly denied any wrongdoing.

Though the privately-owned company Avant-Garde Security Service said the weapons were for escorting commercial ships in anti-piracy operations, police had received complaints that the firearms were used for intimidation.
Gotabhaya became another member of the Rajapaksa family to get bail as several other family members of the the former President were subject to investigations over corruption.

Mahinda's eldest son Namal was arrested for alleged money-laundering and is currently on bail.
His younger brother Yoshitha is on bail after having faced money-laundering charges and his other brother Basil, former economic development minister, is also on bail.
The Rajapaksa family has described legal action as a "political witch-hunt" launched by the current government headed by Rajapaksa's successor Maithripala Sirisena.