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Sri Lankan court bans former Defense Secretary from leaving country

Xinhua, March 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

A Sri Lankan court on Monday temporarily banned the island nation's former defense secretary from leaving the country over an ongoing floating armory investigation.

The court also issued an order to the former Navy Commander Somathilake Dissanayake and two others from traveling abroad, regarding the Avant Garde 'floating armory' probe.

Gotabaya Rajapakse, who was the country's defense secretary during the previous government headed by his brother Mahinda Rajapakse, is currently under probe over his alleged links with two security firms.

He was questioned by the police at his residence in the capital Colombo last month over his alleged links over the armories maintained by the Avant-Garde security firm and his alleged links with Rakna Lanka Limited, another security firm.

The security firms are under investigation over floating armories and other alleged malpractice during the rule of the former government.

Avant-garde and Rakna Lanka are private security firms in the island nation that provide security to ships against Somali pirates. The companies were formed in 2012 to replace the foreign companies which ran these services. Their weapons were also stored in the armories of the Sri Lanka Navy.

The police, in January, seized a large haul of weapons found inside 12 containers on a ship in the southern part of the country and investigations revealed that the weapons belonged to the Avant- Garde security firm.

The police said that the weapons were found on the "Mahanuwara Naukawa" ship which is registered in Sri Lanka and added that 3, 000 weapons were found in the 12 containers.

The police also searched the Rakna Lanka Armory located in Colombo for illegally stored weapons. Endi