Lasantha Wickrematunge

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Lasantha Wickrematunge Biography

Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge (5 April 1958 – 8 January 2009) was a Sri Lankan journalist, politician and human rights activist who was assassinated in January 2009.

In 1994 Wickrematunge started the Sunday Leader with his brother Lal Wickrematunge. He reported critically on both the government and the Tamil Tiger (LTTE) rebels, and the Leader soon “became well known as the island’s best independent newspaper”. He later stated that once the paper was started, he had intended to return to law, but found himself unwilling to give up journalism’s excitement. He was also a reporter for Time magazine and was a political commentator and hosted several programs including Good Morning Sri Lanka.

The paper quickly drew threats and attacks for its reporting on corruption by government ministers. In 1995, men pulled Wickrematunge and his first wife, Raine, out of their car and attacked them with clubs. Raine later stated that the death threats became part of the routine of their lives: “There were so many threatening calls. ‘We are going to kill you. We are going to kill your children.'” In 2000, the government tried Wickrematunge for criminal libel of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, but Wickrematunge received no major penalties. In 2002, Raine left him due to the constant threats against their family, taking their three children to Australia.

Wickrematunge’s assassination caused a national frenzy being the country’s most influential media personnel and one of the biggest political figures and raised questions about freedom of expression in the country. Wickrematunge’s murder was widely condemned across the world. The Daily Mirror called it the “biggest blow” to media freedom in Sri Lanka, and the Editors Guild held the government responsible for the killing as it has failed to stop attacks against media personnel. The government also expressed shock at the killing, pledging to do everything in its power to catch his killers. Wickrematunge had been on Amnesty International’s endangered list since 1998, when anti-tank shells were fired on his house.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, the current Prime Minister, accused Sarath Fonseka, the former army commander, of the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge in 2008 and 2009. In 2011, the former MP Rajiva Wijesinha told BBC Sinhala Service that the British High Commission in Colombo had told him it possessed evidence that former military chief Gen Sarath Fonseka was involved in the assassination of the Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickremetunge. According to Sarath Fonseka the order for the assassination was given by Gotabaya

The Leader was particularly critical in its coverage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. In 2008, Mahinda Rajapaksa, furious over the paper’s reporting, called Wickrematunge and shouted at him that he would be killed if the paper’s coverage did not change; the president had also described him as a “terrorist journalist”. Later, after the assassination of Wickrematunge the paper was allegedly bought over by a Rajapaksa associate and an unconditional apology was made to Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa for publishing a series of reports suggesting that he had made corrupt arms deals.

In 2009, Wickrematunge posthumously won the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. He was also awarded the Louis Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism of Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation the James Cameron Memorial Trust Award, and the American National Press Club’s John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award.

Wickrematunge was shot while he was on his way to work around 10:30 a.m. on 8 January 2009 few days before he was supposed to give evidence about Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s corruption in arms deals before a judge. Four armed assassins riding motorcycles blocked Wickrematunge’s vehicle before breaking open his window and shooting him. He was taken to the Colombo South General Hospital (Kalubowila). It was initially planned with a helicopter on standby to transfer him to the Colombo National Hospital. A specialist team of 20 of medical personnel were called in for the surgery. Despite surgery lasting nearly three hours, Wickrematunge died from his head wounds.

In 2010, Wickrematunge was declared a World Press Freedom Hero of the International Press Institute.

After Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat at the presidential election in 2015, the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena reopened the investigation over allegations that former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ordered the assassination.

In 2016 the East West Center, Hawaii conferred the 2016 Courageous Journalism Award on Lasantha.

In 2016 a retired intelligence officer committed suicide and left a note claiming he is the killer and the intelligence officers that were arrested in investigating are innocent.

In April 2019 Wickrematunge’s daughter Ahimsa Wickrematunge filed a civil lawsuit against Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the state of California. Wickrematunge’s daughter’s lawsuit alleged that Rajapaksa was behind his death.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was the youngest of six born in Kotahena Colombo to Chandra and Harris Wickrematunge, a prominent politician, who had served as a municipal councillor for 30 years and was former deputy mayor, Wickrematunge was the grandnephew of George E. de Silva and cousin of Fredrick de Silva and Minnette de Silva. In his childhood Wickrematunge attended St Benedict’s College where he excelled at cricket. Wickrematunge spent his adolescence in Britain, where he graduated high school and eventually returned to Sri Lanka, where he started law school.

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