Sri Lanka vows to quicken corruption trials with new courts

Sri Lanka has passed a new bill to establish courts to speedily try cases related to corruption and bribery as the government today vowed to reducing legal delays amid people's demand to deliver quick justice.

The Sri Lankan Parliament voted 119-52 to create high courts that would deal with the massive backlog of cases. Only the Joint Oppositon members voted against the bill who dubbed the move as one to target the government's political opponents.

The government, on the other hand, vowed that all involved for graft would be expeditiously dealt with.

"We are committed to reducing legal delays and bringing people guilty of corruption to justice much quicker," Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, referring to the passing of the Judicature Amendment Bill last night.

Many of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa's family members and close associates face legal charges and some of them are currently on bail having been arrested for alleged misdeeds when in power.

Rajapaksa's new party won the February's local election and one of the reasons for the dissatisfaction of the voters with the current government was that investigations against the corrupt have been too slow with none of them being convicted.

There were even accusations that political deals between the Rajapaksas and certain government officials had caused the slowdown of cases.

President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in 2015 with the promise to stamp out corruptionLANKA-SPECIAL COURTS.