Jury discharged in Sivaram murder case, trial put off

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 August 2008, 14:19 GMT]
Colombo High Court Judge A.T.Ratnaike Wednesday discharged the Sinhalese speaking Jury in the murder case of popular military analyst and TamilNet editorial board member Dharmeratnam Sivaram (Taraki) following the submission by the prosecution that whereabouts of one of the key prosecution witnesses was not known, legal sources said.

In this case the Attorney General has indicted Arumugam Sriskandarajah with the murder of well-known journalist Sivaram Dharmaretnam in April, 2005 in Colombo. When the accused was produced in court Wednesday the court was informed that the third witness Prasanna Pubudu Ratnaike was not present in court.

The court then discharged the Sinhala speaking jury and put off the case for further hearing for October 04.

The court on an earlier date appointed a Sinhala speaking jury to hear the trial at the request of the defense counsel appearing for the accused.