Gotabaya Rajapaksa gives evidence in Lalith–Kugan disappearance case; hearing continues November 27

Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa gave evidence on Tuesday in the case concerning the 2011 disappearance of activists Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan, testifying by video link from the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court to the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court.

Jaffna Magistrate S. Lenin Kumar ordered that further recording of evidence continue on 27 November, NewsFirst reported. The court also directed that two lawyers be permitted to appear alongside Rajapaksa while he testified on the virtual platform.

Rajapaksa appeared in person at the Colombo court and gave his evidence remotely to Jaffna, the Daily Mirror reported. His lawyers had asked for the video arrangement on the grounds that he would face difficulties travelling to Jaffna for security reasons.

Seven years between notice and testimony

The procedural history explains why Tuesday mattered. Rajapaksa was issued notice in 2019 to appear and give evidence in the case, filed by relatives of the two men — but had not previously appeared before the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court.

When the matter was taken up on 6 February this year, his lawyers requested permission for virtual testimony. The court granted that permission on 2 June. A further order, issued when the case was taken up before the Jaffna court on 7 August, directed him to attend the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court and give his evidence from there.

The case

Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan disappeared in Jaffna on 9 December 2011. They had been helping organise a demonstration by families of the disappeared, scheduled for the following day — International Human Rights Day.

Neither man has been found, and no one has been held accountable in the years since. Rajapaksa was Defence Secretary at the time.

The inquiry is one of the longest-running enforced-disappearance cases in the Sri Lankan courts, and forms part of the body of unresolved wartime and post-war accountability matters raised repeatedly in reporting to the UN Human Rights Council.

Neither outlet reported the substance of the evidence Rajapaksa gave. Ada Derana also filed on the appearance, but the site remained unreachable at the time of writing.