Former Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne has been officially named as a suspect in connection with the alleged abduction and enforced disappearance of 11 individuals in Colombo and its suburbs, in incidents that authorities say were carried out for ransom.
The case relates to a series of alleged abductions that reportedly took place between 2008 and 2009, the closing phase of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Newswire reported that court officials have issued a notice requiring the former Navy chief to appear before the Colombo Magistrate’s Court on July 27. NewsFirst, citing court documents, reported the summons.
According to Ada Derana, Wijegunaratne is accused of providing facilities to another suspect already implicated in the abductions and disappearances. The Ada Derana report did not specify a court date or the identity of the suspect to whom Wijegunaratne is alleged to have provided assistance.
The case is the most senior former military officer in recent years to be formally named as a suspect over the 2008-2009 Colombo ransom-abduction cluster, a chapter of the war-end period that has been the subject of intermittent CID inquiries and Human Rights Commission interventions for more than a decade. None of the three reports on Wednesday set out the specific charges that may be brought, the names of the alleged abductees, or which division of the CID is leading the investigation.
Wijegunaratne, who commanded the Navy from 2015 and was elevated to Chief of Defence Staff in 2017, has previously been the subject of separate court proceedings linked to the 2008 case of journalist Keith Noyahr, who was abducted, assaulted, and released. That case, along with a parallel inquiry into the 2009 disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda, has run on and off through the magistracy and the Court of Appeal for years.
The summons revives a wartime-era accountability track that has run alongside other live cases in recent weeks, including the CID’s June 9 arrest of a 47-year-old man in Nittambuwa over the September 2018 abduction of a retired Sri Lanka Army soldier from Kirindiwela.
No statement has been issued by Wijegunaratne or his legal representatives. The July 27 court appearance will be the first formal step in the case.
