Sri Lankan police on Thursday arrested a top prison official over a massacre of 27 inmates that became an icon of grave rights abuses under former president Mahinda Rajapakse.
Prisons Commissioner Emil Lamahewage was arrested in connection with the November 2012 bloodbath at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo, police said.
A police inspector was also arrested on Wednesday for involvement in the killings at Welikada which happened when Lamahewage was the prison superintendent.
The arrests followed a reopening of the case in July last year following media reports that the killings were ordered by senior members of the former regime.
Trouble erupted inside the prison when police conducted a sweep for drugs and allegedly faced off with inmates trying to grab their weapons. Armed troops called in to restore order opened fire killing 27 prisoners. Witnesses have said they were killed execution-style after calling them out by name.
The killings escalated international condemnation of Rajapakse.
