ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Attorney-General has released three key suspects in the long-running assassination case of high-profile editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, according to documents in a move that has stunned those who were seeking justice.
Attorney-General Parinda Ranasinghe (Jnr) has ordered the discharge of Premanand Udalagama, a former military intelligence officer, and Prasanna Nanayakkara, the then-DIG of the area, who had been remanded and bailed after evidence linking them to the murder and sabotaging the investigation.
In a letter to the CID, AG Ranasinghe ordered investigators to inform the Mount Lavinia Magistrate of his decision not to proceed against the three key suspects in case number B92/2009 and to report back within two weeks.
A copy of the letter, which was also sent directly to the magistrate and two other recipients, was dated 27 January 2025 but has been widely shared on the social media platform X on Tuesday.
Udalagama had been in remand custody over allegations of abducting Wickrematunge’s driver and threatening him with death unless he stopped implicating the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) in the killing.
Wickrematunge’s driver had alleged that his employer was killed by a DMI unit, as previously reported to the courts by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police.
Destroying Evidence
Nanayakkara was arrested in 2018 and remanded in custody for suppressing vital evidence in the murder case before being released on bail.
Shortly before he was killed, Wickrematunge, had noted down the registration numbers of motorcycles that were following him on the morning of 8 January 2009. The assassins arrived on motorcycles.
Police scene-of-crime officers recorded their observations, but had been ordered the removal of their notes from the official police records.
Wickrematunge’s notebook was handed over to DIG Nanayakkara, who then passed it on to the then-Inspector General of Police, Jayantha Wickramarathne, also a suspect in the cover-up.
Eventually, the notebook disappeared after the case was transferred to the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID).
Despite the police top brass making concerted efforts to conceal evidence, junior police officers had secretly made photocopies of Wickrematunge’s notebook, as well as their own observations recorded in the Grave Crime Information Book (GCIB).
These photocopies of the original police entries in the GCIB, along with a copy of Wickrematunge’s notebook, resurfaced at the CID almost nine years after the crime.
The sudden decision to discharge three suspects in one of Sri Lanka’s most emblematic cases comes despite President Anura Kumara Dissanayake having urged the Attorney General’s Department last month to restore public confidence in the judicial system.
“I also emphasised that it is the responsibility of the Attorney General’s Department to restore public confidence in the judicial system,” the President said on the social media platform LinkedIn after meeting with AGD staff.
“I stressed that we must not allow public expectations to be shattered under any circumstances.”
There was no immediate comment from the government on the AG’s latest decision.
Second Case
This was the second case where suspects were released.
Shortly after the new cabinet was named, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told reporters, that the government was unhappy an earlier decision by the AG to discharge those accused of massacring 11 inmates at Mahara Prison.
Another 117 inmates were wounded in the November 2020 massacre.
After four years, AG Ranasinghe discharged all suspects, much to the shock of the Welisara Magistrate, who openly questioned the Attorney General’s actions.
Several investigations, as well as forensic evidence, indicated that the inmates had been killed in cold blood by their guards, who are now walking free.
The government earlier initiated impeachment proceedings against Court of Appeal President Bandula Karunarathna, who the Constitutional Council refused to appoint as a Supreme Court judge over past actions.
The judge took leave prior to retirement to pre-empt a full-blown impeachment, for which the NPP government had already begun collecting legislators’ signatures. (COLOMBO/Feb04/2025)
