Colombo Chief Magistrate Champa Janaki Rajaratne yesterday allowed a special application by the Deputy Solicitor General to have the Editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper Frederica Jansz hand over the original notebook in which she had scribbled notes during an interview with General (retd) Sarath Fonseka last December.

When the case against General (retd) Sarath Fonseka, in which he is alleged to have involved himself in politics while being in the army was taken up, DSG Wasantha Navaratne Bandara, filing the application under Section 124 of the Criminal Procedure Code, submitted that the respondent had told Frederica Jansz, Editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper published on December 8, 2009, that the Defence Secretary ordered Brigadier Shavendra Silva to shoot down LTTE fighters coming to surrender carrying white flags.

The DSG submitted that the CID had obtained a photocopy of the notebook in which the Editor had scribbled the contents of the interview with the respondent. However, she had refused to hand over the original notebook, which was important evidence.

The Magistrate allowing the application, ordered that notice be issued by registered post to the Sunday Leader Editor who is a resident of Talapathpitiya Road in Udahamulla, directing her to hand over the notebook to the CID.

Attorney- at-Law Nalin Laduwahetty, appearing for the respondent said he believed that Frederica Jansz could have written many things in the notebook on different occasions whenever she wished. That was the reason why she could not hand over the original notebook.

The counsel wanted the CID to specifically state in the application the kind of notebook they wanted from the Editor.

DSG: The book which contains the contents of the interview.

The Magistrate directed the photocopies in custody of the CID to be compared with the pages of the notebook and ordered the respondent Fonseka to be handed over to military custody until the next date of hearing.

The Magistrate further ordered Frederica Jansz to appear in Court with the notebook and postponed further hearings for July 21.