the bill by an assurance that it would be used only for the prosecution of the members of the coup. Trial In June 1962, the Attorney General of Ceylon, Douglas Jansze, QC filed charges against 24 on three counts of attempting to wage war against the Queen, overthrow by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force the Government of Ceylon, overthrow otherwise than by lawful means the Government of Ceylon by law established. The Minister of Justice, under the new law, appointed a Trial-at-Bar made up of three Supreme Court Judges. Of the 24 charged, all were Christians; in terms of ethnicity, there were 12 Sinhalese, six Tamils and six Burghers among them. The remaining five were not prosecuted due to lack of evidence or having turned Crown witness. In the trial of Queen v. Liyanage and others, the accused were defended by some of the top lawyers of the time including G.G. Ponnambalam, QC; H. W. Jayewardene, QC; S. J. Kadirgamar and K. N. Choksy. The prosecution was led by Attorney General Jansze, who relied heavy on the confession given by Colonel de Saram assuming full responsibility and on witness accounts. The judges dissolved the court saying that they were appointed by the Executive, when the latter had no constitutional right to do so. The Criminal Law Act was then amended to get the Supreme Court to appoint the judges. The second court also dissolved itself because of one of the judges, Hon. Justice A.W.H. Abeyesundere, QC, in his earlier post as Attorney General, had assisted the investigation of the case. A Third Court sat for 324 days from 3 June 1963, and convicted 11 of the 24 accused including Col. de Saram, Col. de Mel, Rear Admiral de Mel, Douglas Liyanage, Sidney de Zoysa, Wilmot Abraham, B. I. Loyola, Wilton White, Nimal Jayakody, Noel Matthysz, Victor Joseph, Basil Jesudason, John Felix, David Tambyah, Samuel Jackson and Rodney de Mel. The sentence was ten years in jail and confiscation of property. Wilmot Abraham later died in prison in 1964. Involvement of former prime ministers The names of Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, and former Prime Ministers Dudley Senanayake and Colonel Sir John Kotelawala had come up in the investigation and trial. Goonetilleke was removed from his position as Governor General and replaced by William Gopallawa on 20 March 1962 and went into exile in London. He was tried