Court defers verdict in Rathupaswala shooting case
April 30, 2024 03:46 pm
The Gampaha High Court the Trial-at-Bar has deferred delivering the verdict in the case against a Brigadier and three soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army over the shooting to death of three persons and injuring several others during a protest by villagers demanding clean drinking water at Rathupaswala, Gampaha.
The court was scheduled to deliver its verdict today (30), however when the case was taken up the Trial-at-Bar announced that the verdict will be delivered on May 17, 2024.
On the 1st of August in 2013, army personnel opened fire at unarmed locals at Weliweriya, killing three and injuring several others, as they protested against a factory which they said polluted their groundwater and demanded clean drinking water.
In 2019, then Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya appointed a Trial-at-Bar consisting of High Court Judges Menaka Wijesundara (President), Nimal Ranaweera and Nishantha Hapuarachchi to hear the Rathupaswala case, after considering the Attorney General’s request.