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Supreme court upholds verdict in Embilipitiya case By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles February 15,11:05 PM:A panel of three Supreme Court judges led by Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva upheld the verdict of lower courts to impose a rigorous imprisonment of ten years for the six accused in the Ambilipitiya student disappearance case and refused to allow an appeal against the verdict. In this case the strongly pro-UNP principal of the Embilipitiya Maha Vidyalaya Dayananda Lokugalappaththi and army officers Jaliya Epa, Gavesh Ginige, Vajira Chamarasinghe, S. A. Senarathne and Upul Kariyawasam were held responsible for the disappearance of 25 students of Embilipitiya Maha Vidyalaya who were believed to be massacred by the army. The principal cunningly engaged the army to kill the students for a private grudge on a ruse that they had taken part in the JVP insurrection, it was alleged . The army was camping at the school at the time of the crime. The crime took place during the UNP government of 1989-90, which is known as the reign of terror in which thousands of innocent people were believed to have died at the hands of the security forces, some times for legitimate reasons like opposing the UNP and not breaking the law The accused in the Embilipitiya case were convicted by the Ratnapura High courts on February 10 1989. The accused received the same verdict following a hearing at the Appeals court on January 4 2002. The Supreme Court while refusing to allow an appeal against the appeals court verdict upheld the verdict of the appeals court and said the accused should start commencing the jail term from February 10, 1999. b>(15/01/03 go2lanka.com) |