Police in Sri Lanka have arrested five military intelligence officers on suspicion of assassinating a prominent anti-establishment newspaper editor and orchestrating attacks on other journalists and dissidents under the former regime, a legal source has said.
The 2009 killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge, a fierce critic of the then president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, provoked an international outcry and shone a spotlight on violence against Sri Lanka’s media.
Wickrematunge had accused the president’s brother and defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, of taking kickbacks relating to arms purchases and had been due to testify in court when he was killed.
Five men were taken into custody over the weekend, initially over the May 2008 abduction of the journalist Keith Noyahr, who had criticised military leaders, the legal source said.
“Detectives have found evidence to show that the group which abducted Noyahr was also involved in the assassination of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunge and several other attacks,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
Detectives told a magistrate on Sunday that the five accused had operated a military death squad led by a senior defence official who had not yet been named. More senior people were likely to be arrested in the coming months, the source said.
Rajapaksa and several members of his family are under investigation for large-scale financial fraud and murder during his 10 years as president, in which 17 journalists and media workers were killed.
All deny any wrongdoing and in turn accuse the new government of a political vendetta.
The rights group Free Media Movement gave a cautious welcome to the arrests, urging the government to ensure an independent investigation into the allegations and resist “undue influence” from the powerful military.
The president, Maithripala Sirisena, has publicly criticised police for holding military suspects for long periods, and another group of army intelligence officers arrested in 2015 over the abduction of the cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda was later given bail and reinstated.
Wickrematunge was killed by a group of men on motorcycles who blocked his vehicle before attacking him with sharp objects. A retired army intelligence officer was found hanging at his home in October with a note claiming responsibility for the journalist’s death. But police have said they do not believe the claim and are treating the officer’s death as a murder.