Sumathipala judged fit enough for court

Thilanga Sumathipala, Sri Lanka Cricket's president, was fit enough to attend court last week, according to the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO), who was ordered to examine him by T. B. Boyagoda, the Colombo Chief Magistrate. Sumathipala, embroiled in a complicated passport scandal, failed to attend the court on January 8 after being admitted to hospital.

On Monday, the JMO had handed over a three-page report on Sumathipala's health. Sumathipala's lawyers insisted he was too unwell to answer the summons and was possibly in need of urgent surgery. But the JMO disagreed. In the report, he said, "The pain Mr. Sumathipala had mentioned was not typical of stones in the kidney and it was too small, not needing urgent surgery."

The court had issued summons on Sumathipala as it tried to unwrap a complex case. Sumathipala is accused of an involvement with an underworld character called Dammika Amarasinghe, who allegedly travelled to the 1999 World Cup on a forged passport as a guest of the cricket board, which at the time was headed by Sumathipala.

Amarasinghe, held in custody and facing prosecution for a string of contract killings, was shot dead by an assassin in a Colombo courthouse on Friday morning. The gunman, a former army deserter who was dressed in lawyer's robes, claimed that it was a personal attack of revenge, but police have hinted that it was a contract killing, possibly by a mafia gang based in the south.

The Magistrate will decide on Tuesday whether to force Sumathipala into the courthouse by issuing a warrant. Sumathipala is believed to be seeking a second opinion as to whether he needs surgery.