SRI LANKA-ELECTION/MURDER PROBE Murder probe casts shadow over comeback bid by Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa

Record ID: 144348

  • Title: SRI LANKA-ELECTION/MURDER PROBE Murder probe casts shadow over comeback bid by Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa
  • Date: 11th August 2015
  • Summary: COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (AUGUST 10, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE MUSLIM BURIAL GROUNDS VARIOUS OF CHIEF JUDICIAL MEEDICAL OFFICER AND HIS STAFF ARRIVING VARIOUS OF POLICE GUARDING ADDITION MIGISTRATE ARRIVING PEOPLE WALKING INTO BUILDING VARIOUS OF CROWDS WATCHING FROM OUTSIDE GATES CHIEF JUDICIAL MEDICAL OFFICER DR. AJITH TENNAKOON SPEAKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Sinhala
  • Embargoed: 26th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sri Lanka
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA50MAEL7S2FN4JT1XHI8U1OAYY
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The exhumation of the remains of a star rugby player whose death is now the target of a murder investigation has cast a shadow over former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's comeback bid at Sri Lanka's general election next week.
    Chief Judicial Medical Officer Dr. Ajith Tennakoon said they will work on it as soon as possible.
    "I can't say know how long it will take. That will depend on the tests we have to do. But we will give a report on this to the courts as soon as possible," he said as the remains were carried out of the burial grounds with protesters chanting.
    Rajapaksa, 69, has denied allegations by the government that Wasim Thajudeen was tortured to death in May 2012 by members of his security team and did not die in a car crash as reported at the time.
    Rajapaksa, who has set his sights on becoming Sri Lanka's next prime minister, said the investigation was timed to coincide with the Aug. 17 elections. He demanded an independent inquiry.
    "It must be an independent investigation and the people must be told the truth. This has been brought forward during the elections. The way the media played this up shows that this is politically motivated," Rajapaksa said at a news conference on Monday (August 10), after police last week obtained a court order to exhume Thajudeen's body on suspicion that he had been murdered.
    Nobody has been arrested or charged, but the case has received sensational coverage in the local press that could mobilize voters resentful of Rajapaksa, who as Sri Lankan leader built a close alliance with China.
    Although still held in high esteem by much of Sri Lanka's majority Sinhala community for defeating a 26-year Tamil insurgency in 2009, Rajapaksa is reviled by others who accuse him of running a brutal dynastic regime.
    According to a poll by Saravanamuttu's Center for Policy Alternatives, most minority Tamils and Muslims back Prime Minister Ranil Wikremesinghe's reformist coalition.
    Rajapaksa has a narrow edge among Buddhist Sinhalese - who make up seven in 10 voters on the strategically located Indian Ocean island of 20 million. In a one-on-one premiership contest, Wikremesinghe would have a 10-point lead.
    Thajudeen's remains, wrapped in polythene, were exhumed on Monday on the order of a court to establish whether his injuries were consistent with a police report that his car crashed into a wall on a quiet Colombo side street and caught fire.
    Government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne alleged last week that three members of the presidential security guard had tortured and killed Thajudeen, who played for the national rugby side captained by Rajapaksa's second son, Yoshitha.
    Officials also allege that the Rajapaksa administration suppressed a post mortem report which found that Thajudeen had suffered extensive injuries to his head, neck, pelvis and legs.
    The autopsy's findings were only released after Maithripala Sirisena defeated Rajapaksa in a Jan. 8 presidential vote. Following the opening of the murder investigation, Sirisena has fired his security detail.
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