Abdul Gaffoor Nawsin vs. The Attorney General – CA HCC/0406/2017-2022

In Attorney General (for the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka) v. Abdul Gaffoor Nawsin, the court considered whether the conviction of the appellant for possession of heroin by the High Court of Chilaw was legally sustainable, with particular focus on the treatment of defence evidence and the standard of reasonable doubt. It was determined that the trial proceedings were fundamentally flawed due to the improper rejection of the defence case on procedural grounds rather than on its credibility or substance. The principle reaffirmed was that defence evidence must be weighed equally with prosecution evidence, and that an accused is entitled to acquittal where a reasonable doubt is raised. The judgment relied upon established Sri Lankan precedent and principles of fair trial, and hel