The Court of Appeal has on Thursday (26) ordered a retrial in the assassination case of former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) member of parliament (MP) Nadarajah Raviraj, setting aside the earlier acquittal of the accused that included three Navy intelligence officers.
The judgment was delivered by a bench comprising Justices B. Sasi Mahendran and Amal Ranaraja following an appeal filed by the Attorney General challenging the High Court verdict.
The accused had previously been indicted before the Colombo High Court on multiple charges including conspiracy to assassinate Raviraj, causing his death, and the killing of Police Constable Lakshman, who was travelling with Raviraj at the time of the attack. The suspects in the case included three Sri Lanka Navy intelligence officers among others.
The trial, which was conducted before a special jury in 2016, resulted in all accused being acquitted after a unanimous verdict. The Attorney General later appealed against the decision, arguing that the High Court Judge had failed to properly direct the jury, particularly regarding the testimony of a key accomplice witness.
The Court of Appeal has now found that the High Court Judge had not adequately instructed the jury on how to assess the evidence of the accomplice witness, who had been granted a conditional pardon and whose testimony formed a central part of the prosecution’s case.
The judges had also raised concerns over the timing of the jury instructions, noting that the judge began charging the jury late in the evening and continued until around 11:00 p.m., with the verdict delivered shortly after midnight — circumstances described as unusual.
After reviewing the evidence, the Court of Appeal had concluded that there was sufficient material to proceed with the case and ruled that the acquittal should be set aside.
Accordingly, the Court had ordered that a fresh trial be conducted before the High Court.
Raviraj was shot dead in Colombo in November 2006 along with his police bodyguard, in a killing that drew widespread local and international attention. Raviraj’s murder stands as one of the most significant and controversial political killings during the country’s civil war and highlighted the dangers faced by outspoken political figures and underscored the climate of violence and impunity that characterized Sri Lanka during this turbulent period.
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