9th Death Anniversary of Lasantha Wickrematunge today!

The 9th death anniversary of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the former editor of the Sunday Leader was marked today by a sombre gathering at his gravesite located at the Borella Cemetery. Family, friends, colleagues in the industry gathered in remembrance of him.

The brother of the slain editor Lal Wickrematunge, at the gathering today is said to have noted that the failure to bring to justice those responsible for the murder could even open the door to Prime suspect or suspects to be elected President or PM of our land at a future date.

The founding editor of The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was also an Attorney-at-Law, was killed by unidentified assailants on Attidiya Road, as he drove to his newspaper office in Ratmalana. The investigation into his murder was re-opened by the Criminal Investigation Department in 2015 after remaining dormant for five years.

Co-Cabinet Spokesman, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, speaking yesterday at the 71st General Convention of the UNP at Campbell Park made startling revelations regarding the brutal assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge.

“Lasantha was privy to confidential information emanating from a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ukranian government,” Minister Senaratne stated. “Lasantha knew of the extent of corruption and went on to publish an article on it, but couldn’t prove his claims later in a court case.”

The Minister added that the then government engineered a scheme to enter into a second MoU. “By this time, Lasantha gathered much more information and intended to publish an article. The government got to know and felt it would be better if they got rid of him before tabling the second MoU.”

Minister Senaratne said that the investigations were ongoing and that that he was confident of the Police bringing the culprits to book. In 2016, a military intelligence officer was arrested for abducting Wickematunge’s driver and intimidating him against implicating former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the assassination. Wickrematunge’s body was exhumed in September 2016, and it was revealed in courts that Lasantha died from a blunt blow to the head and that the cause of death certificate initially submitted to the court by the then Judicial Medical Officer Dr K. Sunil Kumara contained false and misleading statements.