Sri Lanka’s political stage turned into a courtroom drama as two controversial figures found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Former Parliamentarian and ex-State Minister Nimal Lanza was arrested after surrendering to the Kochchikade Police over a long-standing investigation into a 2006 assault. His arrest adds yet another chapter to the saga of politicians dragged into old cases resurfacing with fresh legal force.
Meanwhile, former Parliamentarian Venerable Athuruge Rathana Thero was ordered to be remanded until September 12 by the Nugegoda Magistrate’s Court. The Thero, who had been dodging investigators from the Criminal Investigation Department by going off the radar with his phone switched off, finally appeared in court over the turmoil surrounding the National List MP position of the Ape Jana Bala Party.
While Lanza’s fate ties back to an assault charge from nearly two decades ago, Rathana Thero’s case strikes at the heart of Sri Lanka’s chaotic party politics, where disappearing acts and evasions only delay the inevitable. Both arrests underscore the growing wave of accountability being pushed through the judiciary, though critics argue that selective justice continues to thrive.
