COLOMBO : The Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar on Thursday, Jan.12, sentenced former Prisons Commissioner Emil Ranjan Lamahewa to death over the Welikada Prison riot in 2012.
The first defendant in the case, former Inspector of Police (IP) Neomal Rangajeewa was acquitted from all charges in the case.
A bench comprising Justices Gihan Kulatunga, Pradeep Hettiarachchi and Manjula Thilakaratne delivered the verdict in the case filed against the former Inspector of the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) and the former Prisons Commissioner over the Welikada Prison riot in 2012.
Twenty-seven inmates were killed while more than 20 others were injured in the clashes during the Welikada Prison riot on November 09, 2012, when prisoners took control of the populated prison objecting to an unannounced search by the Special Task Force to nab hidden arms, drugs and mobile phones at the prison.
A number of police officers including the then commanding officer of the Special Task Force had also sustained injuries in the incident while army troop were later called in to control the situation.
IP Rangajeewa was arrested by the CID on March 28, 2018 over the alleged killing of inmates at the prison during the clashes and Lamahewa, who was the then Prisons Superintendent in charge of the Magazine Prison and later the Prisons Commissioner (Rehabilitation), was arrested by CID at his official residence the following day. They were later released on bail.
The Attorney General’s Department on July 04, 2019 had filed the case against Rangajeewa and Lamahewa under 33 charges including the murder of 08 selected inmates who were taken to the industrial division of the prison premises, conspiracy to murder and unlawful assembly.
The trial had lasted for over two years while following the conclusion of the hearings, the High Court Trial-at-Bar was scheduled to deliver the verdict on January 06, 2022. However, the bench postponed the verdict as they could not arrange the verdict as scheduled and required time to correct typographical errors.
