Sri Lanka’s Appeals Court ordered the Attorney General to present a review of an investigation into the 2012 Welikada Prison, in the coming weeks.
The Attorney General will have until March 5 to present the review into the incident, which saw 27 mainly Sinhalese inmates killed during a prison riot by security forces. Eye witnesses said the officers executed many of the inmates in cold blood. As the riot spread across the prison, located in Colombo, more than 180 Tamil political prisoners were reportedly moved from Magazine prison in Welikada to another jail for their own safety. Welikada prison houses a number of Tamil political detainees. Previous prison riots, notably in 2000, 1997 and 1983, have resulted in Tamil political prisoners being murdered by Sinhala mobs.
In September last year unidentified gunmen fired shots at the house of one of the key eye witnesses to the 2012 shootings.