Sri Lankan military personnel questioned over murder of journalist

The 23-year-old De Silva was killed on July 1. According to the police, his assailants shot him four times—once in the ear and three times to the head using a 9mm pistol—and took his notebook and mobile phone. His body was found the following morning in Jayawardana Avenue, a residential area of the Colombo suburb of Dehiwala, about four kilometres from his home.

After questions were raised by several media organisations about the suspicious character of the murder, the Dehiwela police detained a military intelligence officer who was later released after questioning. Normal police procedure in Sri Lanka is to hold suspects until they can be produced in court. The officers have not been named.

De Silva had certainly angered military intelligence as well as the two Sinhala extremist parties—the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU). As defence correspondent for the newspaper Sathdina, he wrote several articles last year under the pen name of Admirala, criticising intelligence personnel for corruption and connections with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). He also wrote about the financial irregularities and internal disputes of the JVP and JHU.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/sril-j12.shtml