The Colombo Permanent Trial-at-Bar will rule on a prosecution request to recall a witness in the long-running trial over the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, after the prosecution alleged the witness had given contradictory statements under pressure from the first accused, NewsFirst reported.
The bench — Presiding Judge Nayana Senavirathne, with Judges Nalin Hewawasam and Lakmali Hewawasam — fixed June 26 for the next hearing, when it will also resume the substantive trial.
The case, filed by the Attorney General against nine Army intelligence officers including former Girithale Army Camp Commanding Officer Shammi Kumararatne, concerns the 2010 abduction and disappearance of Eknaligoda and several related charges. The journalist and political cartoonist disappeared two days before the January 2010 presidential election and is believed to have been abducted by military intelligence operatives. His body has never been found.
At Friday’s hearing, the prosecution led evidence from two witnesses — Upali Priyantha, a former Army officer attached to the Girithale Army Camp, and Sumana Thilaka, a retired police constable. Deputy Solicitor General Wasantha Perera then sought permission to recall an earlier witness, Suresh Kumar, whose 2015 confidential statement before the Homagama Magistrate’s Court conflicted with a 2023 statement to the Criminal Investigation Department. The DSG told the bench the contradictions resulted from “alleged threats and pressure” exerted by Kumararatne.
Defence counsel objected, arguing that the witness was biased and noted that a separate case concerning the alleged intimidation of the same witness by Kumararatne is pending before the Trincomalee Magistrate’s Court, with no final determination yet. The bench reserved its order on the recall request.
The Eknaligoda case is one of the most prominent wartime-era accountability proceedings in the Sri Lankan courts and forms part of a wider cluster of cases targeting former military intelligence personnel.
Source: NewsFirst.
