Liyanage v. The Attorney-General – 1978_79 volume 2 page 111

In Liyanage (Plaintiff) v. The Attorney‑General (Defendant), the court addressed the sufficiency of uncorroborated testimony under the Bribery Act, particularly regarding solicitation and acceptance of gratification by a public official. It was held that a conviction for solicitation based solely on uncorroborated evidence could not be sustained, whereas the conviction for acceptance was supported by material corroboration and therefore upheld. This reaffirmed the principle that, where the trial judge has doubts and the evidence is uncorroborated, a conviction is unsafe, emphasizing the necessity for corroborative material especially in offences involving public trust and evidence reliability.

Atukorale J. — It was determined that the evidence on the acceptance charge (count 2) was corro