Sri Lankan Supreme Court judge indicted for sexual abuse case

A former Sri Lankan Supreme Court judge was today indicted for sexually abusing a domestic help, the first such case in the country's history.

Sarath de Abrew was indicted by the Colombo High Court for sexually abusing his domestic help before being ordered bail and released on two sureties of rupees 100,000 each.

The Attorney General charged the judge under the clause-365 of the Penal Code, court officials said.

Abrew, who has denied the accusation, had earlier filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition.

In his petition, he said that the Attorney General acted arbitrarily and did not consider statements of several witnesses before filing the indictment.
 

However, the Supreme Court today rejected his argument and refused to grant leave to proceed with his FR application.