The Attorney General’s Department states that the suspects named in the letter sent by the Attorney General to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on January 27, 2025, in connection with a case being heard at the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court, are not the same suspects arrested for the murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga.
Issuing a press release, the Attorney General’s Department further stated that the investigation into the murder has not yet been completed.
The full statement is as follows:
The suspects named in the letter sent by the Attorney General to the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department on 27.01.2025, in connection with Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court Case No. B 92/2009, are not the suspects arrested in relation to the murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga.
The investigation into his murder remains ongoing and has not been concluded.
The statements made in the media and social media do not match the investigation reports forwarded by the Criminal Investigation Department to the Attorney General’s Office.
More than six years after the murder of journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga, in 2015, his driver, who was not an eyewitness to the murder, informed the CID that he had been abducted by a group in late 2009.
Based on this information, an investigation was launched, and steps were taken to report the facts under Case No. B 92/2009, which was then brought before the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court.
It was decided to release Prema Ananda Udalagama, who had been named as a suspect in this investigation, due to the lack of sufficient evidence to file criminal charges. This decision was made based on the facts presented and the legal ambiguities surrounding his identification.
Furthermore, the following suspects who were arrested during the CID’s investigation into the misplacement of a document from the vehicle driven by Lasantha Wickramatunga:
- Hettiarachchige Don Tissa Siri Sugathapala
- Vitarana Arachchige Sirimevan Prasanna Nanayakkara
were also released due to a lack of sufficient evidence to file criminal charges.
I hereby inform you that this release does not prevent the future consideration of criminal charges if new evidence emerges.
Angelo Vannoff
State Attorney (Administrative)
For the Attorney General
