The six former army Corporals who were accused over the massacre of 24 civilians in Kumarapuram, Trincomalee in 1996 have been acquitted after they were found not guilty by the Anuradhapura High Court.
The verdict which was delivered by High Court Judge Manjula Thilakaratne this evening as per the decision reached by the jury, comes following a long trial into one of the country’s most high-profile cases.
The jury’s decision was that the defendants cannot be sentenced to death based solely on the fact that they were identified several witnesses in the case.
101 indictments were filed against each ex-officer accused over the incident, also known as 1996 Trincomalee massacre, which claimed the lives of 24 Tamil civilians including 13 women and 9 children below the age of 12 and critically wounded several others.
