The Colombo High Court sentenced five persons to death on Thursday after having found them guilty of a murder that was committed fourteen years in the Beddagana area.

The five individuals to whom the death sentences were handed were also residents of the Beddagana area.

The Attorney General’s Department had charged the five accused with having abducted an individual from his residence down a lane in Beddagana in 2001 and have killed him by beating him to death with poles.

In the course of announcing the death sentences, the High Court Judge stated that the charges had been proven beyond reasonable doubt.