Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama ordered the arrest of former minister Wimal Weerawansa on Monday after he failed to appear in a case over a 2016 protest outside the United Nations office in Colombo. Weerawansa reached the court later the same morning and, through counsel, asked for the warrant to be recalled.

The magistrate said that request must be made on Tuesday, according to Hiru News.

The order

When the case was called on Monday, Weerawansa was not present. The magistrate directed that he be arrested and produced before the court, NewsFirst reported at 10.04 a.m.

Five minutes later the same newsroom filed an update: Weerawansa had reported to court and appeared before the magistrate. His lawyer told the court the delay was caused by a technical breakdown in his vehicle.

The 2016 case

The charge is causing a public nuisance by blocking the road outside the UN office at Thummulla, Colombo, during a protest in 2016.

Daily Mirror supplies the occasion the other outlets leave out: the protest coincided with the visit to Sri Lanka of Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Zeid’s 2016 mission pressed the then-government on its transitional-justice commitments under the 2015 Human Rights Council resolution — the backdrop to a nationalist protest outside the UN compound.

Hiru News names Kurunduwatte Police as the complainant; other accounts of the case name Cinnamon Gardens Police. These are the same station — Kurunduwatte is the Sinhala name for Cinnamon Gardens — and not two separate complaints.

Hiru’s wording (“ordered the arrest and production of former minister … regarding the case … against them”) indicates Weerawansa is not the only person named in the matter.

A decade on

The protest was in 2016; the warrant issued in 2026. Neither outlet explains what has kept the case running for ten years, how many times it has been called, or whether Weerawansa has missed previous dates — the usual trigger for a magistrate to move from summons to warrant.

Not reported

No outlet says whether Weerawansa was taken into custody at any point, what specific role he is alleged to have played in the protest, how many other suspects are named, or what penalty the public-nuisance charge carries. Nor is it stated whether the magistrate imposed any condition when the case was put over to Tuesday, or whether bail was addressed.

Sources