RIYADH: A Sri Lankan driver who has been in jail for four years for not paying the compensation in a traffic accident was released by a court in Qatif on the grounds he is insolvent. The Ministry of Finance will pay the sum owed to the victims in the accident.
R.M. Wimalaratne, 43, has been imprisoned since 2005 after his truck collided with a vehicle driven by Abdul Rahman Ali Asiri, who died on the spot in Qatif. The court imposed 75 percent of the blame on Wimalaratne since he possessed only a light vehicle license while driving a heavy lorry at the time of the accident.
“We are very happy that the accident victim has been released,” a senior diplomat from the Sri Lankan Embassy who was attending to Wimalaratne’s case told Arab News. He added that the embassy in Riyadh requested the court release him on the ground of insolvency.
It claimed that Wimalaratne had come to the Kingdom after obtaining loans from several people in Sri Lanka to pay his job agent and had received salaries for 13 months that were adequate only to settle a fraction of his debts. Wimalaratne did not have any assets to turn into cash to repay the compensation, the official said. While releasing Wimalaratne, the Qatif court judge said that insolvency has been proved without any doubt.
