Court asked to appoint expert to review Gedhoruveriya housing portal
The prosecution has charged the four officials, all members or supervisors of the housing allocation process.
The Criminal Court on Tuesday heard a request to appoint an expert to examine the online portal used for the Gedhoruveriya housing scheme during the trial of four former Housing Ministry officials accused of allocating flats to ineligible recipients.
The prosecution has charged the four officials, all members or supervisors of the housing allocation process, with abuse of official authority in connection with allocations made under the scheme during the previous administration.
The accused are Akram Kamaluddhin, who served as State Minister of Housing and chaired the Housing Committee; Mohamed Arif, then Senior Executive Director of the Housing Ministry and a committee member; Ahmed Vishan Naseem, former Director General of the Housing Ministry who oversaw the verification process; and Liram Waheed, then Senior Executive Director who also supervised verification.
During pre-trial motions heard on Tuesday, defence counsel for Akram Kamaluddhin and Mohamed Arif requested access to the housing allocation portal and asked the court to summon an expert to review the system and provide testimony.
In response, the prosecution said the portal contains personal data of many individuals and that relevant portal logs and case-related information have already been disclosed to the defence. The prosecution added that the court may appoint an expert if it considers it necessary.
No ruling was issued on the motions during the hearing. Trial Judge Adam Mohamed said the court would issue decisions on the pending motions within this month.
