Sri Lanka’s Attorney-General, the country’s chief prosecutor, has reversed his earlier decision to discharge three key suspects in the Lasantha Wickrematunge assassination case amid calls for his impeachment.
In a dramatic U-turn, Attorney-General (AG) Parinda Ranasinghe instructed the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) through Senior Assistant Solicitor General Rohantha Abeysuriya that they should not proceed with his instructions dated 27 January 2025.
In the letter sent last month, AG Ranasinghe (Jnr) had ordered the discharge of Premanand Udalagama, a former military intelligence officer, and Prasanna Nanayakkara, the then-DIG of the area, both of whom had been remanded and later bailed after evidence linked them to the murder and to obstructing the investigation. The third was police inspector Sugathapala.
In the now-withdrawn letter, Ranasinghe had instructed investigators to inform the Mount Lavinia Magistrate of his decision not to proceed against the three key suspects in case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 demand the CID ignored.
It is reliably understood that the CID responded with a lengthy submission outlining why the suspects should not be discharged before the investigation was completed.
They also pointed out that the AG had no authority to discharge any suspects without first obtaining a report from investigators on the status of the case, a procedure not followed by Ranasinghe.
Public OutrageDestroying Evidence
Military intelligence officer 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 murdered by a DMI unit, as previously reported to the courts by the CID.
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 were subsequently ordered to remove their notes from 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 concerted efforts by senior police officials to conceal evidence, junior 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.
Third Case
This was the third case in which key suspects were released by Ranasinghe.
Shortly after the new cabinet was appointed, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told reporters that the government was unhappy with 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. An STF officer suspected of murdering an alleged drug dealer was also released by Ranasinghe, a move that has been challenged by a senior lawyer representing the victim’s widow. Ironically, this very lawyer had supported the AG’s decision to release suspects in the Lasantha case.
Impeachment
Lasantha Wickrematunge’s daughter, Ahimsa, urged the government to impeach Ranasinghe over what she described as the illegal discharge of suspects in her father’s murder. Top government sources said the matter was seriously discussed at the highest levels of the administration.
Fearing imminent impeachment, Ranasinghe sought the support of the Legal Officers’ Association, which issued a strongly worded statement backing him. However, within minutes, Ranasinghe backtracked, effectively abandoning his supporters.
“The Legal Officers’ Association emphatically wishes to state that they would not hesitate to stand up and defeat any attempt to remove the Hon. Attorney General from his office,” the Association stated in a press release defending Ranasinghe’s actions.
However, at the time the Association’s statement was released, the AG had already instructed the CID not to act on his previous orders.
