Convictions over Students' murders

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 February 1999, 20:09 GMT]
The Ratnapura High Court Judge Chandradasa Nanayakkara today delivered his order convicting seven of the accused and acquitting two in the sensational Embilipitiya Students Murder Case.

The seven accused including the former principal of Embilipitiya Madhya Maha Vidiyalaya were sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment each.

The nine accused were indicted with eighty charges including unlawful assembly, abduction and murder of 25 students of Embilipitiya Madhya Maha Vidiyalaya between 1980 and 1990.

After a 194 day-trial, considered to be one of the longest in the country's legal history, the High Court Judge in his order stated that of 80 charges, except murder, thirty had been proved.

The first accused, Dayananda Lokku Galapathi, former principal, the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth accused were found guilty of abduction.

Chandima Lokku Galapathi, a Sri Lanka Army officer and the son of the first accused and the third accused, SLA Brigadier Rohana Parakrama were acquitted due to lack of evidence against them.

The High Court Judge censured the Police for not properly conducting the investigations into this crime.