Nearly 15 years after the murder of eight internally-displaced Tamils in Northern Province, the High Court of Colombo on Thursday awarded death sentence to a soldier and acquitted four other soldiers.
The incident took place on December 19, 2000, when the eight people went to see their property in Mirusuvil, near Jaffna. While knife was used to attack them, some of the deceased had gun shots in their bodies, said K.S. Ratnavel, the lawyer who represented families of the deceased. Among the dead was a five-year-old child. All their bodies were dumped in a ditch, he added.
The death sentence had been given to R.M. S. Ratnayake.
Anil Silva, the lawyer for all the five accused, said the four others had been given the benefit of doubt on the ground that there was no proper identification. As the verdict was given by the trial at bar (comprising three judges of the High Court), the convicted person had to move the Supreme Court to challenge it, Mr Silva added. (President of the country has the power to pardon.)
