No justice for Lasantha yet

8 January marks the 16th anniversary since the assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the Editor of The Sunday Leader. It has been 16 long years since he had been denied justice and his family offered closure. The anniversary is also a reminder of the abysmal failure of the Sri Lankan State to find and prosecute his killers and hold to account those who seek to silence the free press through violence and bloodshed.

In 2015 after the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) took over the investigation into Lasantha’s killing, certain facts came to light about how a shadowy section of the security establishment were involved in the murders, assaults, and abductions of journalists. A team of Special Forces trained intelligence officers stationed at what was called the ‘Tripoli army camp’ at Maradana were particularly involved in the killing of Wickrematunge, the abduction of journalist Keith Noyahr and the assault on Editor Upali Tennekoon. At least two other persons, innocent Tamils from Vavuniya were murdered to cover-up Wickrematunge’s murder and muddy the waters and cast blame elsewhere. The then Inspector General of Police who orchestrated this cover up was later appointed as a Commissioner to the Office on Missing Persons by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The killing of Lasantha is widely believed to be linked to the corrupt ‘MiG Deal’ he was about to expose. Then defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his cousin Udayanga Weeratunga were accused in this scandal in which second-hand MiG 27 aircraft were purchased with Government money being transferred to a secret bank account in the name of Bellimissa in the British Virgin Islands. The account was opened in 2006 just before the deal. When the MiG deal fell into media spotlight in December 2006, it was highlighted as a government-government transaction, but later investigations revealed that the payment was made to a mysterious third party, Bellimissa Holdings, UK which was a ghost company that did not exist in any form.

The two key policemen who were investigating the Wickrematunge murder were hounded by Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Government soon after the Presidential election in 2019. Director of the CID, Shani Abeysekera was incarcerated for over 11 months over trumped up charges and the Inspector of Police Nishantha Silva had to flee the country in fear of his life. The latter has since testified at an international “people’s trial at the Hague” in which he has given details clearly linking Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the murder of Lasantha and many other incidents of violence against senior journalists.

Shani Abeysekara has since been exonerated and he has been placed in a significant position of authority within the police department by the current administration. It is hoped that this would finally allow for the investigation into the killing of Lasantha to be concluded and the perpetrators prosecuted.

The shameful political machinations and deal making that denied justice in this case should not be forgotten. The minister of law and order in the Yahapalana regime is alleged to have compromised the investigations by the CID, even going as far as leaking sensitive information to Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s personal lawyer. Both these individuals later secured plum positions under the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration while the policemen who investigated the killing, the prosecutors from the Attorney General’s department who prosecuted the case and the journalist who reported on this story were hounded by the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration.

The time for action and justice has long passed. If the new administration of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is to retain its credibility in addressing issues of law and order, there is no better case than the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge to demonstrate that commitment. Until then, the free media of this country will never forget nor stop demanding justice for its fallen comrade.