Forgotten Murder: Untold Story of Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi's Tragic End

COLOMBO (News 1st); There is a memorial located in Buddhiyagama, in Weeraketiya, Tangalle, located in the south of Sri Lanka.

This, buried under the sands of time, involves a person who was a focal point in the Batakanda Commission Report.

He was Attorney-at-Law Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi.

A lawyer, human rights activist, and a skilled orator in the political arena.

During the 88/89 period, he appeared in court without charging any fees on behalf of those who suffered various injustices due to human rights violations.

On August 25, 1988, this lawyer disappeared.

On September 2 of that year, he was admitted to the Colombo National Hospital and passed away at 12:55 AM the following day in the hospital's intensive care unit.

"During the post-mortem examination, it was revealed that he had 119 internal injuries and 20 external injuries due to severe torture. He had severe injuries on his left arm, several ribs were fractured, and there was a shoe mark on his right shoulder blade, which was well-documented in the medical examination," diclosed Chandradasa Liyanarachchi, the brother of the murdered Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi.

What happened to Attorney-at-Law Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi?

The Batalanda Commission Report contains about six pages of information regarding this death.

According to the Commission Report, following the disappearance of Attorney-at-Law Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi on August 25, 1988, his senior lawyer Ranjith Abeysuriya and others immediately intervened and made inquiries from various parties.

According to the Batalanda Commission Report, when the then Inspector General of Police, inquired from Tangalle Police Superintendent Karavitage Dharmadasa about the matter, he was indirectly led to believe that the missing lawyer was in the custody of the Tangalle police.

The then Inspector General of Police, Ernest Perera, testified before the commission that on August 31, 1988, at noon, the then Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made a phone call to him.

Wickremesinghe had stated that he expected the suspect, in this instance Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi, to be brought to Colombo and handed over to the anti-subversive unit operating in the Kelaniya division.

Accordingly, the then Inspector General of Police ordered for Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi to be handed over to Assistant Superintendent of Police Douglas Peiris, who was residing in the Batalanda housing complex at the time.

The Commission Report suspects that the lawyer was taken from Tangalle to the Batalanda torture chamber.

Meanwhile, the Commission Report also focuses on the transfer of the lawyer to the Sapugaskanda police station after being handed over to the anti-subversive unit in Peliyagoda.

Attorney-at-Law Liyanarachchi, who was handed over to the special unit, was admitted to the emergency unit of the Colombo National Hospital in a critical condition at 11 PM on September 2, 1988.

He passed away in the intensive care unit at 12:55 AM.

Excerpt from the Batalanda Commission Report:

"The post-mortem examination of the deceased was conducted by Colombo Judicial Medical Officer Dr. L.B. de Alwis. According to his findings, Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi died due to multiple muscle and skeletal injuries caused by blunt weapons, leading to shock and bleeding.--

The post-mortem report states that there were 207 external injuries before death.

This murder caused a great uproar at the time, and lawyers launched a strong campaign for justice.

Amidst the strong public outcry, the then Tangalle Police Superintendent Karavitage Dharmadasa and two other officers were arrested and charged before a three-judge High Court bench.

However, the High Court later acquitted them due to the inability to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they were the true murderers of Liyanarachchi.

Excerpt from the Batakanda Commission Report:

"The Commission questions why Ranil Wickremesinghe intervened and why he instructed that Liyanarachchi be brought to Colombo and handed over to the special unit operating in the Kelaniya division. Wickremesinghe's stance before the Commission was that he never instructed the Inspector General of Police over the phone to act in such a manner. The Inspector General of Police informed him over the phone about the decision to transfer Liyanarachchi from Tangalle to Colombo and asked if he had any objections to detaining Liyanarachchi at Sapugaskanda. Wickremesinghe stated that he had no objections."

However, the Commission strongly rejects Wickremesinghe's statement, as noted in the report.

Excerpt from the Batakanda Commission Report:

"If the Minister of Industries was not actually controlling and directing the special unit operating in the Kelaniya area, why did the Inspector General of Police ask him if he had any objections to detaining Liyanarachchi at Sapugaskanda (located within the electoral division represented by the Minister)?"

"Attorney-at-Law Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi was my brother. All the conspiracies to murder him were carried out by the cruel politicians of the Hambantota Tangalle area in the south. He was a threat to them. As a lawyer and politician, the work he did for this country was a threat to those vile politicians. Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi was a great challenge to the politicians of this district and the country's politics. This murder can be seen as a step taken to eliminate that challenge," said Chandradasa Liyanarachchi, the brother of the murdered Wijeyadasa Liyanarachchi.

The Batalanda Commission Report contains information on many such murders buried under the sands of time.

The Cabinet has now decided to present this report to Parliament in the coming days.