Gotabaya responds to AFP’s “death squad” article

Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has issued a letter via his attorney to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) an international news agency headquartered in Paris, complaining over the “false and distorted” publication carried out under the heading ‘Ex-leader’s Brother Led Death Squad in Sri Lanka’.

He states that the news item authored by AFP’s local correspondent Amal Jayasinghe had stated that a police report had implicated that Rajapaksa had led a unit that was accused of assassinating the former editor of Sunday Leader newspaper, Lasantha Wickramatunga, during his tenure as Defence Secretary. 

Attorney-at-Law Sanath Wijewardane says that he has been instructed by his client to write to AFP and the article’s author stating that the said news article is a “blatant lie” as the police report did not refer to Mr Rajapaksa at any point.

He further stated that it is an offence to “twist and distort facts” reported to court, which amounts to contempt of court. 

“No report whatsoever was read out in court implicating my client as contended in your news item, as such you have designed the said news item to mislead the general public with a view to tarnish the good name and reputation of my client with a hidden and ulterior motive,” the letter said. 

(See above for full letter)