Sri Lanka court warns 'White Flag' witness Frederica Jansz

A Sri Lankan court hearing the 'White Flag' case against former Army commander and Democratic National Alliance (DNA) leader warned its star witness today not to criticize other witnesses of the case in her newspaper.

The Colombo High Court today warned the chief editor of English weekly The Sunday Leader, Frederic Jansz to stop publishing articles in the newspaper on Fonseka's case while being a witness herself.

Fonseka was present in the Court when the case was heard today. The case was heard by a three-bench trial at bar headed by High Court Judge Deepali Wijesundara.

Fonseka was accused of disclosing state secrets for allegedly telling The Sunday Leader newspaper in an interview that Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had ordered the shooting of senior LTTE cadres who tried to surrender to the security forces carrying white flags during the final stages of the war last year.

During the cross examination of Ms. Jansz by defense, Fonseka's counsel Nalin Ladduwahetty pointed out that articles critical of reports on the case in other newspapers had been published in Sunday Leader.

The witness has responded that her evidence given in the court had been misquoted by other newspapers and she had to respond.

The court told Ms. Jansz any such articles published in other newspapers distorting the court proceedings the witness should initially lodge a complaint to the court.