{"id":52096,"date":"2017-03-21T09:06:36","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T13:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=52096"},"modified":"2017-03-21T09:09:04","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T13:09:04","slug":"sarath-fonseka-and-gotabhaya-rajapaksa-blame-each-other-targeting-of-journalists-by-secret-death-squad-of-military-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=52096","title":{"rendered":"Sarath Fonseka and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Blame Each Other For the Targeting of Journalists By Secret Death Squad of Military Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The brother of Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapakse denied on Tuesday involvement in war-era death squads, blaming the then army chief for an alleged secretive campaign of extra-judicial murders.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gotabhaya Rajapakse has been accused of giving orders to a shadowy military outfit allegedly involved in murdering journalists and political dissidents during Sri Lanka’s long-running civil war.<\/p>\n

In testimony filed to court on Monday, former army chief Sarath Fonseka said this death squad was run by military intelligence but took orders from Gotabhaya Rajapakse, a powerful defence secretary during his brother’s tenure.<\/p>\n

Gotabhaya Rajapaksesaid Fonseka — who led Sri Lanka’s armed forces between December 2005 and July 2009 — should answer for the excesses carried out by troops under his command.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“I deny any involvement with these killings,” Gotabhaya Rajapakse told AFP. “If he (Fonseka) knew there was a secret hit squad, what action did he take as army commander?”<\/p>\n

Fonseka led Sri Lanka\u2019s victorious final offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, but fell out of favour after unsuccessfully challenging Mahinda Rajapakse for the presidency the following year.<\/p>\n

The Criminal Investigations Department told the court the death squad was involved in a litany of abuses against the media during Mahinda Rajapakse’s presidency, in which 17 journalists and media staff were killed.<\/p>\n

Just hours after submitting its report, police arrested a sixth military officer for alleged involvement in the abduction and assault of an editor in 2008. Five others were arrested last month over the same case.<\/p>\n

Police also allege the death squad was behind the 2009 murder of prominent newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunga, whose death sparked an international outcry.<\/p>\n

Wickrematunga had accused Gotabhaya Rajapakse of taking kickbacks in arms purchases, including a deal to buy used MiG jet fighters, and was due to testify against him in court when he was killed.<\/p>\n

Mahinda Rajapakse and several members of his family are under investigation for large-scale fraud and murder during his presidency, which ended in 2015.<\/p>\n

All deny any wrongdoing and in turn accuse the new government of a political vendetta.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:New Indian Express<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The brother of Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapakse denied on Tuesday involvement in war-era death squads, blaming the then army chief for an alleged secretive campaign of extra-judicial murders. Gotabhaya Rajapakse has been accused of giving orders to a shadowy military outfit allegedly involved in murdering journalists and political dissidents during Sri Lanka’s long-running …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Sarath Fonseka and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa Blame Each Other For the Targeting of Journalists By Secret Death Squad of Military Intelligence’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52096"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52098,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52096\/revisions\/52098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}