Lasantha Wickrematunge\u2019s brother and co-founder of The Sunday Leader, Lal Wickrematunge, has expressed strong dissatisfaction over the lack of proper investigations into the journalist\u2019s assassination, even after 17 years.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a media briefing held in Colombo today (14) on behalf of the \u201cWe for Lasantha\u201d movement, he stated that there has been no visible progress in the case despite nearly two decades passing since the killing.<\/p>\n
He said that the identities of the attackers who arrived on motorcycles are known not only to the family, but also to the investigators and even to those responsible for the murder. According to him, the failure to take proper legal action has created anger, suspicion, and unrest among the public.<\/p>\n
Lal Wickrematunge stated that although witness evidence is necessary to take a case to court, several individuals connected to the case had already been arrested and later released on bail. He argued that the police are capable of solving even more complicated murders within days if they truly want to, but that has not happened in Lasantha\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
He further claimed that four more people connected to the assassination have since been killed, yet no legal action has been taken despite the existence of evidence.<\/p>\n
He also questioned why no action had been taken against a former Inspector General of Police who allegedly altered evidence, and why a former Deputy Inspector General who reportedly took away Lasantha\u2019s diary after the murder has not been prosecuted.<\/p>\n
According to him, filing cases regarding these obvious incidents first would automatically strengthen the evidence in the main murder case.<\/p>\n
Lal Wickrematunge criticized politicians, saying that they mainly focus on two things: gaining votes and ensuring their decisions do not reduce their voter support.<\/p>\n
He also stated that attacks on Keith Noyahr and the disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda were widely believed to have been carried out by a faction within the military.<\/p>\n
He argued that when a small group within an institution commits wrongdoing, the proper response is to remove those responsible and protect the institution itself. However, in Sri Lanka, such individuals are instead protected as \u201cwar heroes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who kill without reason can never be heroes. As a nation, we must accept that reality. Otherwise, this country will never progress,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n
Lal Wickrematunge also noted that Lasantha is internationally celebrated as a courageous journalist, yet he was murdered in his own country while media institutions were also attacked and burned.<\/p>\n
He added that when he personally met current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the President assured him that action would be taken regarding the case, and he said he still waits with that hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lasantha Wickrematunge\u2019s brother and co-founder of The Sunday Leader, Lal Wickrematunge, has expressed strong dissatisfaction over the lack of proper investigations into the journalist\u2019s assassination, even after 17 years. Speaking at a media briefing held in Colombo today (14) on behalf of the \u201cWe for Lasantha\u201d movement, he stated that there has been no visible …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1263,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261\/revisions\/1263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}