President’s Counsel Hemantha Warnakulasuriya has passed away at the age of 74 while receiving treatment at a private hospital last night. 

He had been receiving treatment at the hospital for a prolonged illness. 

A senior criminal lawyer in the country, Warnakulasuriya had rendered his service as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Legal Aid Commission and as an Assistant Secretary to the Bar Association of Sri Lanka. 

He had also served as the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Italy, Greece and Albania and as the High Commissioner to Malta and Cyprus.

He was appointed as a Board Member of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) by President Maithripala Sirisena in August 2016. 

Warnakulasuriya took oaths as an attorney-at-law in 1972 and began his practice at the Colombo Magistrate’s courts. He was appointed convener of the Professional Affairs Committee, which drafted the Code of Conduct and Etiquette for Attorneys-at-Law.

In 1989 he was elected Secretary of the Bar Association and served as chairman of the Legal Aid Commission for ten years. He had been elected as Deputy President of Bar Association.

He was a leading criminal lawyer and took up many notable cases at the Magistrate’s Court of Colombo. In 2006 he was appointed as a President’s Counsel. The same year he was appointed as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Italy.