The Supreme Court has issued an open warrant for the arrest of former minister Premalal Jayasekara, after he failed to appear before it on Wednesday in the appeal that could restore the death sentence against him.
The court directed that the warrant be executed through the Inspector General of Police and the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, the Daily Mirror reported, and ordered that Jayasekara be produced before it.
He was out of the country, and the court was told where
Counsel for Jayasekara told the court his client could not appear because he could not be contacted.
Senior Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara, for the Attorney-General, then told the court what Immigration and Emigration records show: Jayasekara left Sri Lanka on 31 August 2026 and travelled to Bangkok, Thailand.
That closes a question this desk left open. When the CID found in early September that Jayasekara had flown out four days before the Supreme Court barred him from leaving, neither of the outlets covering it said which country he had gone to. The destination has now been stated in open court by the Attorney-General’s representative.
President’s Counsel Saliya Pieris, appearing for the aggrieved party, moved for the warrant.
The date was set seven weeks ago
Wednesday’s hearing was not a surprise listing. On 4 September the same bench ordered all three respondents to appear on 21 October and imposed a travel ban. At the time no outlet reported what the 21 October date was for. It was for this.
The two other respondents did attend. Former Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council member Nilantha Jayasinghe and former Kahawatta Pradeshiya Sabha chairman Vajira Darshana de Silva appeared in compliance with the September notices and were remanded in custody pending further proceedings, NewsFirst reported.
The bench was Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena and Justices Achala Wengappuli and Gihan Kulatunga.
What the appeal is about
The three men were convicted by the Ratnapura High Court on 31 July 2020 over the killing of Shantha Dodangoda, who was shot while working on a stage being prepared for a rally in the Kahawatta area in support of Maithripala Sirisena’s 2015 presidential campaign. They were sentenced to death under section 296 read with section 146 of the Penal Code.
On 31 March 2022 the Court of Appeal acquitted and discharged all three. The widow of the deceased challenged that judgment in the Supreme Court. If her appeal succeeds, the acquittals fall and the death sentences stand again.
Jayasekara, a Ratnapura District politician known as “Choka Malli,” was elected to Parliament in 2020 while under sentence of death, and later served as a state minister and as Minister of Ports and Aviation under the former Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna government.
The passport question is now four months old
Neither filing addresses how Jayasekara left the country at all. When the Nuwara Eliya Magistrate’s Court released him on bail in April over a separate allegation that he threatened a man with a pistol, it ordered his passport impounded as a condition of release. No outlet has reported whether that order lapsed, was varied, or was simply not enforced on 31 August.
Discrepancies on the record
The Daily Mirror spells the surname Jayasekara in its headline and Jayasekera in its text. It also renders the victim’s name as Dodamgoda in one sentence and Dodamgodage in the next; NewsFirst uses Dodangoda, the form used here.
Not reported
Neither outlet says whether Sri Lanka will seek Jayasekara’s return from Thailand, whether an extradition or Interpol step is contemplated, or when the appeal is next listed. The Daily Mirror does not mention that the two co-accused were remanded. Ada Derana also filed on the order, but its site has been returning HTTP 403 to this desk for several weeks and the report could not be fetched to verify a publication date, so it is not cited as a source.
