Judge to decide if Sri Lankan must leave

Associated Press

A Sri Lankan man who admitted assaulting a flight attendant has been turned over to U.S. immigration officials.

Porastus Chandra Sri Dissanayake will be detained by immigration officials until a judge determines whether he should be removed from the United States. No date has been set for that hearing.

Visiting U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie on Friday sentenced Dissanayake to three months and 26 days, the time he already has served, and placed him on three years of supervised release. He had pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of a flight crew and interfering with the crew's duties.

Dissanayake was arrested March 15 after he struck a Philippine Airlines flight attendant in the back and face on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Dissanayake entered the United States as a student in November 2000.