^{Avant Maritime's employees. Source: Avant Maritime}

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and seven others have been acquitted of all charges filed against them by the Bribery Commission, over the case of the ‘Avant Garde’ private security firm accused of running floating armouries. 

The Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court acquitted the group following a Court of Appeal judgment.

See more from Colombo Page here, the Sunday Times here and the Colombo Gazette here.

Avant-Garde Security Services [Pvt] Ltd describes itself as a company which has the “ability to face any challenge in Security promptly”. The private security firm illegally acquired hundreds of weapons from Sri Lanka’s defence ministry and was accused of running “floating armouries” in the Indian Ocean, allegedly with the blessings of former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. 

A raid on a vessel in October found 816 guns and over 202,674 rounds of ammunition on board. Some 59 automatic rifles also had their serial numbers obliterated from the weapons, making them impossible to trace. A further 3,000 weapons stashed in 20 containers owned by the company in Galle were also seized, with thousands of government-owned arms reported missing. Mr Rajapaksa was accused of allowing private militias to function, with the Sri Lankan government reportedly suffering Rs. 11.4 billion in losses.