Daily NEWS Srilanka

The Army Sergeant Major of the Intelligence Unit who was taken into custody recently in connection with the murder of the former Chief Editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper was produced before an identification parade

The person who has made threats to his chauffeur has been subjected to suspicion after Lasantha's death and therefore it is assumed that much information could be extracted in future by interrogating the said member of the Intelligence Unit in this matter. Several motor cycles that pursued Lasantha's vehicle with faces covered near Mt. Lavinia Bakery Junction had been armed with sniper-type weapons and the murder had been carried out in that manner in broad daylight.

At the moment of the assassination one of the persons present at this scene had noticed how one person had kept looking at the incident by removing his helmet and that person had been a witness to the scene of the murder of Mr. Lasantha Wickramatunga. Mt. Lavinia Magistrate Mr. Mohammed Sahabdeen had instructed yesterday that the evidence of this person who was an eye witness be called to be present on forthcoming 3rd. The said identification parade was held in the presence of Mt. Lavinia Additional Magistrate, Mrs. Lochana Weerasingha. The chauffeur's Attorney-at-Law has expressed his comments to the media to the effect that after investigation, activities in relation to the incident concerned had been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department and that its officers had carried out the duties entrusted to them with absolute transparency.

The Magistrate ordered that the person who was an eye witness be produced to courts on the 3rd next month and to present the Army member who is currently in remand for the identity parade on that day and if this witness too is able to identify him, the assassinator in this murder case would then be cornered. In the same way, this particular member of the Army had been accused of having assaulted the Rivira Newspaper Editor and is to be produced in courts over a legal case which is being heard at Gampaha Courts.