Lasantha Wickrematunge was assassinated on 8 January 2009. He was a human rights activist, journalist and politician.
Wickrematunge was the founder of The Sunday Leader and Leader Publications alongside his brother and was known for taking “governments of all hues to task”.
Wickrematunge had been on Amnesty International’s endangered list since 1998, when anti-tank shells were fired on his house
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.
Reporters Without Borders said that “Sri Lanka has lost its more talented, courageous and iconoclastic journalists,” and said that “President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his associates and the government media are directly to blame because they incited hatred against him and allowed an outrageous level of impunity to develop as regards violence against the press”.
The murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge is shrouded in cover ups and dark mystery in which a person who challenged power was removed by at least some of those powerful people to prevent their criminality and corruption being brought to light.
