Sri Lankan Army Maj Gen Priyanka Fernando, former defense counselor at the Sri Lankan High Commission to the UK,  has won a case in a high court in the United Kingdom which overturned a conviction order of a lower court against him, reported Colombopage. 

A Westminister Megistrates’ court in the UK had earlier convicted him for threatening gestures he had made towards a group of LTTE supporters in 2018. The LTTE supporters were protesting on 4 February 2018 when the incident happened. Though, he had been tried in absentia. 

Quashing the judgment of the lower court, the high court acknowledged the diplomatic immunity of the former defense counselor and also asked the defendants, the Tamil protesters, to pay the cost to Maj Gen Fernando. 

“The interpretation of the treaty should not be an exercise in ‘pedantic literalism’. It should be read in the context of its ‘object and purpose’” said the court in its judgment.

The court, in its order, also noted that a significant purpose of conferring diplomatic immunity of foreign diplomatic personnel in Britain is to ensure that British diplomatic personnel enjoy corresponding immunities elsewhere.