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AG instructs Acting IGP to locate witnesses in Trinco 5 case
10 Jul, 2019
Attorney General (AG) Dappula de Livera has instructed Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) C. D. Wickramaratne to try and locate the witnesses in the Trinco 5 case.
The Coordinating Officer to the Attorney General, State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne told the Colombo Gazette that the Attorney General had sent a letter to the Acting Inspector General of Police instructing him to try locate the key witnesses so that the case can resume.
Jayaratne said that the AG had noted that if the witnesses can be located then the case can resume even though the main accused had been acquitted.
Most of the witnesses are believed to be overseas.
Special Task Force (STF) members accused over the murder of the five youth in Trincomalee in 2006 were acquitted in the case last week.
Trincomalee Chief Magistrate, M. Hansa acquitted 13 Special Task Force members who were suspected of executing five youth at the Trincomalee beach in 2006.
Fifteen charges were filed against the suspects but they were released due to lack of evidence.
Popularly known as the ?Trinco 5? case, the murder of the five youth became a high profile case which was raised by international human rights groups and the UN Human Rights Council.
Amnesty International has been campaigning for justice for the Tamil students.
The parents of all five boys fled overseas after facing death threats when they pushed for answers over the murders of their children.
Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan, the father of one of the students killed, has been leading a campaign seeking justice.
Last year Amnesty noted that despite police investigations and a Presidential commission of inquiry, no one has been held accountable for these crimes. (Colombo Gazette)
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