Sri Lanka’s Ex-Immigration Chief Jailed for Contempt of Court

Colombo: On September 23, Sri Lanka's former immigration chief was sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court for contempt of court. This decision comes as a result of defying a court directive concerning the processing of tourist visas. A three-judge bench found Harsha Ilukpitiya, the former Controller General of Immigration and Emigration, guilty of not enforcing the court's directive from July 2024 to cease an outsourced electronic tourist visa-on-arrival system and revert to a previous system.

Ilukpitiya has been in remand custody since September 25 of the previous year, following accusations of non-compliance with the directive. The court noted that over the past year, several bail applications filed by him were rejected.

The case stems from a fundamental rights petition filed by opposition politicians who claimed the outsourced visa operation was fraudulent and lobbied for its suspension.

Introduced in April 2024, the new system caused significant delays at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport and resulted in increased processing fees. Despite a Supreme Court directive last year to terminate the outsourced operation, Ilukpitiya did not comply, which ultimately led to his sentencing on Tuesday.

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