Sri Lanka's Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne has been summoned by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for questioning for allegedly helping the main suspect in the abduction and killing of Tamil youths between 2008 to 2009 evade arrest.
The summons issued orders Admiral Wijegunaratne to appear before the CID on November 27.
On August 16 Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) told Colombo Fort chief magistrate, Lanka Jayaratne it had evidence that Admiral Wijegunaratne provided the former navy commander, Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi alias 'Navy Sampath' with Rs. 500,000 in order for him to skip bail and escape arrest.
“There is evidence against Admiral Wijegunaratne’s role in allowing the accused to evade arrest,” the CID was quoted by AFP as saying to the magistrate, who responded by immediately instructing the Bank of Ceylon to release records of the the navy's accounts from March to May 2017.
Lieutenant Commander Hettiarachchi was arrested this month over his involvement in the abduction of eleven Tamil youth from 2008 to 2009, who were held in navy bases at Trincomalee and Colombo before being murdered.
Admiral Wijegunaratne was in 2016 filmed assaulting a journalist covering a story on Hambantota port. Despite this Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena extended his service and promoted him to Chief of Defence Staff.
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