A court in Morawaka on Wednesday acquitted three journalists who had been initially charged with allegedly plotting to assassinate the former president.
Journalists, Daya Weerasinghe, Ravindra Pushpakumara and Shalika Wimalasena were apprehended by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on 02 September, 2009 while they were heading back to Colombo after carrying out an investigation on construction of a road leading to the residence of Thusitha Ranawaka, the husband of one of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s sisters, in Bevaraliya, Deniyaya. The road was being constructed by the state owned Maga Neguma Department.
In a background of state media labeling the journalists as “suspects in a conspiracy to assassinate the president”, the trio were produced before the Morawaka Magistrate’s Court with a ‘B’ report charging them with trespassing on public property, after interrogating for seven days at the Terrorist Investigation Division.
The suspects were acquitted when the case was taken up for hearing before the Morawaka Magistrate K.M.G.P. Samarasinghe today.
