The family of slain Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge has urged the country's new president to reopen the investigation into his internationally condemned assassination. The anti-establishment editor was brutally murdered on his way to work in January 2009 by assailants later identified by police as members of a military intelligence unit connected to the once-powerful Rajapaksa family.
The election of the nation's first leftist president, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, has given Wickrematunge's family 'a renewed sense of hope' for justice, according to his daughter Ahimsa. 'We are hopeful that this leadership will bring a fresh perspective into finally addressing the atrocities that have taken place in Sri Lanka's recent human rights history,' she stated.
Wickrematunge had previously accused then-defence ministry secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa of accepting bribes in arms deals, including the acquisition of second-hand MiG jet fighters from Ukraine. His family held Rajapaksa, who was at the time a US citizen, responsible for the killing and filed a lawsuit in a California court. However, the case was suspended after Rajapaksa gained immunity upon becoming president in November 2019.
Rajapaksa was ousted from office in July 2022 after mobs ransacked his residence amid severe shortages of food and other essentials. His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, did not reopen investigations into any of the Rajapaksa-era killings, including those of over a dozen journalists and media workers.
Wickrematunge, a prominent critic of the previous administration, was stabbed just days before he was scheduled to testify in a corruption case involving Gotabaya Rajapaksa. His murder highlighted human rights abuses under President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya's older brother. The Wickrematunge case has been seen as emblematic of Sri Lanka's culture of impunity for rights violations and has been repeatedly addressed by the UN rights body and others.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been accused of ordering a covert military unit allegedly involved in the murders of journalists and political dissidents during Sri Lanka's protracted civil war, a claim he denies.
