By: Isuru Parakrama
Colombo (LNW): The Supreme Court today (27) validated the Ratnapura High Court’s ruling on six accused who had been charged for complicity in the violence that had erupted following the assassination of MP Nalanda Ellawala in 1997.
Accordingly, the defendants, including former Ratnapura Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sugath Dissanayake, will be serving a five year rigorous imprisonment sentence as validated by the Supreme Court Bench.
The verdict was given by the Supreme Court Bench comprising Justices Murdu Fernando, S. Thurairaja and Achala Wengapulli today.
The defendants were charged by the Attorney General for torching a trade shop during the violence incited upon the murder of Ellawala 26 years ago.
In 2007, the Ratnapura High Court ruled the defendants were guilty of the charges and sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonments, but the defendants had later filed an appeal before the Appeal Court demanding an order nullifying the High Court ruling and thereby, acquittal.
The defendants then had filed an appeal before the Supreme Court, as their first appeal was rejected by the Appeal Court.
The Supreme Court, which had dismissed the second appeal forwarded by the defendants, has ordered the prison sentence to be implemented from today (26).
