Sri Lanka: Monk hangs self in Kandy Prison

A Buddhist monk who was detained at the Kandy remand prison after being arrested for possessing marijuana has committed suicide by hanging himself.

Police spokesman SP Ajith Rohana says the 73-year-old monk, of a monastery in Wilgamuwa, was found dead in his prison cell on Friday (25) morning.

The monk was arrested by Wilgamuwa Police on February 19 for possessing 500g of ganja and remanded after being produced before Naula Magistrate’s Court the following day.

The body is currently placed at the Kandy Hospital mortuary while postmortem examinations have not been completed yet, the police media spokesman said in a release.
Source: Sri Lanka News -Adadeerana on line edition

Sri Lanka: Two Men Sentence to Death

The Kandy High Court sentenced to death two murder suspects who had been involved in a murder that took place in 2001 in Harasgama Road Matale.

Kandy High Court Judge Ms. M.C.Phuspamalee sentenced to death the two accused B.G. Karunaratne alias Raja and B. Ariyaratne over the murder of H.D.Wimalasena on or about September 7, 2001.

There were six witnesses called by the prosecution and the Judicial Medical Officer Dr. Sanjeewa Illanayake in evidence submitted to court that there had been eight injuries on the body and the skull was in pieces triggering brain damage.

At the conclusion of the trial, the High Court Judge sentenced both accused to be hung and ordered that they should be at the Bogambara Prison until the date for the hanging is announced by the President.
Source: Dali y Mirror on line edition (L.B.Senaratane)

Buddhist monk sentenced to death

A Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka has been sentenced to death – the first in 50 years to receive such a sentence in the country. He was condemned for a murder committed before he was ordained into the clergy. His fate is however unclear as no death sentence has been carried out for more than three decades. The 37-year-old monk, Venerable Gomadiye Sarana, was sentenced to death by a court in southern Sri Lanka along with a companion. They had been found guilty of murdering a man 12 years ago – some years before the monk entered holy orders. Bandaranaike murder The crime appeared linked to a dispute over an affair the monk had with the murder victim’s sister. Reports say the judge ordered the monk to remove his robes before he delivered the judgment. But the monk refused. Theravada Buddhist monks play a prominent public role in Sri Lanka. This is the first time a monk has been given the death sentence since the hanging in 1962 of Talduwe Somarama, a fierce Sinhalese nationalist who had assassinated a Sri Lankan prime minister. Other monks have recently been implicated in serious crimes. Last year a court ordered the arrest of a Buddhist cleric in northern Sri Lanka for allegedly sexually molesting a teenage girl. In the south a crowd of protestors demanded the arrest of someone they said was a monk for the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl. And last week police said they detained a monk in possession of heroin. People are regularly sentenced to death in Sri Lanka but the last judicial execution happened in 1976 so there are hundreds on death row.  Source:  By Charles Haviland BBC News, Colombo

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Sri Lanka: Another Six individuals received Death Penalty

The Provincial High Court of Kegalle today (Feb. 08) handed down death sentences to six individuals convicted in three murder cases. 

The suspects were found guilty of three separate murders which had taken place in Aranayake, Avissawella and Deraniyagala.

High Court Judge Menaka Wijesundara handed down the sentences as the charges against the suspects had been proven beyond reasonable doubt. 

Source: Ada Dearana. 

Sri Lanka: Puttalam District court issues death sentence

Sunday Leader on line edition
The Puttalam High Court issued the death sentence on a suspect arrested in 2007 for having heroin in his possession.
P. Mohomad Jauffer was found guilty today for having heroin in his possession when a vehicle was stopped at a police check point in Nagaviluwa, Puttalam in 2007.
Puttalam High Court judge S.B Arafat Kassim issued the death sentence when the case was taken up for hearing today.
The first accused in the case, K. Selvaratnam, was released by the court while another suspect, Salam Azwar, is believed to have fled to India.
High Court judge S.B Arafat Kassim issued an arrest warrant for Azwar and instructed the police to present the warrant to the police in India.
Heroin weighing some 899.5 grams was found in the vehicle at the time it was checked but the suspect had managed to flee.
Following investigations, the police identified the three suspects and arrested two of them as the other man had fled the country.
03 Feb 2012