Welikada Prison Riot : Verdict postponed to 12th January

COLOMBO (News 1st); The verdict on the 2012 Welikada Prison Riot and Massacre which was to be delivered on Thursday (6) was postponed to the 12th of January.

The verdict of the Welikada Prison Riot case was to be announced on Thursday (06).

The case was filed by the Attorney General against former Inspector of Police of the Narcotics Bureau Neomal Rangajeewa, and former Prisons Commissioner Emil Ranjan Lamahewa for the killing of eight prisoners at the Welikada Prison.

A special three-judge bench comprising Justices Gihan Kulatunga, Pradeep Hettiarachchi and Manjula Tilakaratne will deliver the verdict.

Indictments were filed before a special three-judge bench of the High Court on July 4th, 2019 against Neomal Rangajeewa and Emil Ranjan Lamahewa.

When the case filed by the Attorney General, Former Prison Intelligence Officer Indika Sampath was also named as an accused, and he was overseas at the time.

He was tried in absentia and when the evidence examination of the prosecution concluded, the bench noted that there was no evidence against the accused.

Accordingly, he was acquitted and released while the trial against Neomal Rangajeewa and Emil Ranjan Lamahewa continued.

Although 27 prisoners were killed in the prison riots on November 9, 2012, evidence was only available on the killing of eight prisoners for the Attorney General to file the case.