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2012 Welikada unrest case: Colombo HC sentences ex Prisons Commissioner to death

12 Jan 2022

The Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar Sentenced Former Prisons Commissioner Emil Ranjan Lamahewa to death today (12). The sentence was made while delivering the judgement over the 2012 Welikada Prison unrest case. Meanwhile, Former IP Neomal Rangajeewa was acquitted from all charges associated with the same. Rangajeewa was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on March 28, 2018, over the alleged killing of inmates at Welikada prison during the clashes in 2012. Lamahewa, who was the then Prisons Superintendent in charge of the Magazine Prison, was arrested by CID at his official residence on Baseline Road, Colombo 09 the following day. Twenty-seven inmates were killed while more than 20 others were injured in the fatal shooting during the Welikada Prison riot on November 09, 2012, when prisoners took control of the populated prison objecting to an unannounced search by the Special Task Force to nab hidden arms, drugs and mobile phones at the prison. Former Attorney General Dappula de Livera had filed the case against Rangajeewa and Lamahewa under 33 charges. The indictments against the duo read that the inmates were imprisoned for allegedly engaging in drug dealing. Ex-AG had requested Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya to appoint a Trial-at-Bar to hear the case against Rangajeewa and Lamahewa.


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