Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne yesterday ordered the Government Analyst (GA) to examine whether any alterations had been made to the laptop seized from journalist Dharisha Bastians after her lawyers made an application to court.
The Magistrate directed CID officials to get a report from the GA to ascertain if the laptop computer had been tampered with between June 4 and June 16, the days , her lawyers say, the computer was in the possession of the Police.
The laptop was produced in court today by the CID when the case against Swiss Embassy employee Garnier Banister Francis who is at the center of an abduction drama which allegedly took place last November, was taken up.
Francis is facing charges under the Penal Code for exciting or attempting to excite disaffection against the state as well as for giving or fabricating false evidence by making up a story of her abduction.
She was accompanied to Court by an embassy official yesterday.
Bastians’ name has been linked to an investigation into an alleged abduction involving the employees of the Swiss Embassy.
The Former Editor of the Sunday Observer who was forced to leave the country after the change in government after her name was dragged not an investigation in a note issued on Monday said has voiced concerns about the seizure of her computer saying as a journalist, she is horrified at the public exposure of her telephone records, which could seriously endanger and compromise her sources and contacts, then, now and in the future.
The case will be heard again on July 21.
