Sri Lanka announces charges over 2012 prison massacre

AFP  |  Colombo 

Sri Lanka's on Friday announced charges against a top and an elite for the killing of 27 inmates in a notorious rights case.

A third suspect who was a member of a prison intelligence unit was on the run, de Livera said.

Commandos were used to put down a riot at the in Colombo and disarm inmates who had taken weapons from the armoury.

According to de Livera's account, eight prisoners were called out by name and killed execution-style.

Weapons were later introduced to make it look like the victims had tried to fire at jail guards, according to court documents made available to AFP.

The documents did not mention any command responsibility for the deaths.

have said the killings were ordered by the then Gotabhaya Rajapakse, a younger brother of former who was defeated at January 2015 elections.

Rajapakse has denied involvement in the killings. However, a court hearing was told Friday that no investigation was carried out when Rajapakse was in power.

The killings escalated international condemnation of Rajapakse, whose government faced sanctions for rights abuses in the final years of Sri Lanka's 37-year-long Tamil war that ended in 2009.

Some of the inmates killed were being held over robberies at and a temple, crimes allegedly linked to senior members of

The 2012 massacre was the worst prison violence since 50 inmates were hacked to death in a July 1983 riot.

Rajapakse lost a 2015 election to who promised to ensure accountability for past abuses.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Fri, June 21 2019. 18:40 IST