Amendments will be made to the Victims of Crime and Witnesses Act No 5 of 2015 to allow victims and witnesses to give evidence from outside the country through audio visual media, without being present in courts.
The above proposal put forward by Minster of Justice, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe
was approved by Cabinet
this week and the amendments would soon be
gazetted and drafted into a Bill to be
produced in Parliament.
This proposal was initially approved by Cabinet in June of last year as the government had received many requests from witnesses and victims
to testify from abroad.
At the time, the government also said evidence may be given at a Sri Lankan
Diplomatic Mission in the respective country and provisions should be enacted to protect the freedom of witnesses and prevent any influence.