'My Neighbor the Suspected War Criminal' – When Gotabaya Rajapaksa got served

 

 

27 April 2022

The Center for Investigative Reporting and RPX examined the US government’s failure to charge accused war criminals in its latest Reveal podcast entitled ‘My Neighbor the Suspected War Criminal’, with footage revealing the moment current Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was served papers for a civil lawsuit.

The program, hosted by Ike Sriskandarajah, explores a civil lawsuit filed by Ahimsa Wickrematunge - the daughter of assassinated Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge - seeking damages from Rajapaksa for instigating and authorizing the extrajudicial killing of her father, who was the former Editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper.

Rajapaksa, who oversaw a military offensive that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, was formally served notice of the lawsuit at a Trader Joe’s parking lot in Pasadena, California in 2019.

“With little action from the government to prosecute war criminals, victims of violence are instead using civil lawsuits to try to seek accountability,” said Reveal.

“Lawyers at the Center for Justice & Accountability have brought two dozen cases against alleged war criminals and human rights violators – and never lost at trial. But when the lawyers share their evidence with the federal government, it often feels like the information disappears into a black box.”

Listen to the full episode and read the transcript of it here.

The lawsuit bought by Wickrematunge was eventually dismissed, claiming Rajapaksa is entitled to “foreign official immunity”. However The Center for Justice & Accountability highlighted that it left room in the future for potential legal action, once he leaves office.

At the same time in 2019, a separate lawsuit was also filed by the International Truth and Justice Project and the American law firm Hausfield on behalf of Tamil torture survivor Roy Samathanam. Samathanam was physically and psychologically tortured after being detained in Colombo in September 2007 by the Terrorism Investigation Department of the police (TID). Samathanam was only released in August 2010 after signing a false confession and accepting a plea deal. He won a case against the Sri Lankan government at the UN Committee Against Torture but the Sri Lankan government did not comply with the order for compensation.

He told the Tamil Guardian of how his experience of torture at the hands of Sri Lankan security forces "never goes away".

Later that year the Tamil torture victims decided to withdraw their cases, in order to prevent Rajapaksa from asserting immunity.

“Gotabaya won’t be President for life and though he may slip through the net now, one day he and those who aided and abetted him, will be held accountable,” said ITJP Executive Director, Yasmin Sooka. “The international community will be watching”.

A rally in Jaffna last year where Tamils demanded Sri Lanka be referred to the International Criminal Court.

In 2021, two separate legal submissions were filed with the International Criminal Court (ICC) calling on the Chief Prosecutor to “investigate and in due course arrest” several senior Sri Lankan officials for crimes against humanity, including Rajapaksa.