Two former LTTE cadres sentenced over 2000 attack on SL air force plane

<p>Two former LTTE cadres were sentenced to imprisonment for shooting down a Sri Lankan air force aircraft in the year 2000.</p> <p>The North Central Provincial High Court judge handed out a sentence totalling 185 years each, with parole after 5 years ‘rigorous’ imprisonment, for the two former cadres, 41-year-old Rajathurai Jegan and 43-year-old Nallan Sivalingam.</p> <p>Jegan and Sivalingam allegedly fired a missile at a Sri Lankan air force Antonov-32 aircraft over Anuradhapura, downing the plane and killing all 37 people onboard, including Sri Lankan air force personnel, navy personnel, police officers and the Russian pilot.</p> <p>The two were arrested in 2012 in Kilinochchi.</p>