Stranded Scot in Sri Lanka begs for help to return home

A Scot whose husband was murdered in Sri Lanka is begging for help so she can return home.

Diane De Zoysa says she is destitute following the fatal shooting of husband Priyanjana De Zoysa, 26, last month.

She sold her house in Edinburgh last year to set up home with Priyanjana.

And now she says she has nothing.

Diane added: “I gave up everything to come and live here in Sri Lanka and now it’s ended tragically.”

Diane was on holiday almost six years ago when she met Priyanjana, who was working at the hotel where she stayed.

The pair exchanged numbers and stayed in touch over the internet after Diane went home.

Seven months later, she went back to Sri Lanka on holiday and the couple married in 2012.

Diane visited her husband several times before moving last year to Ahungalla, a small coastal town south of the capital Colombo.

She said she used the money from selling her home in Portobello to pay for a house to be built and for a minibus for her husband to drive for employment.

But married life was not what Diane hoped for and she suspected her husband of having a second wife.

On May 30, she was devastated when Priyanjana was shot three times at a friend’s house by men she claims were blackmailing him for money.

Diane said: “They thought he was a rich man as he had a nice house, a minibus and a tuk-tuk. He paid them but they wanted more.

“My husband and his family are very poor, so I have helped them. I gave up everything to join my husband here.

“I sold up in Scotland in order to get the money to get the house built.

“I gave my husband £60,000 and bought him the bus in 2015 for £31,000.

“I paid for our house to be built and it’s still not finished. It never will be finished. It is in his family’s name.

“I never imagined that I would be at my husband’s funeral. I thought that I would die first, seeing as I’m a lot older than him.”

Diane said married life was good until she moved to Sri Lanka permanently.

She claims she became a “prisoner in her own home”, with her husband leaving her alone for days on end, with no money to buy food.

Diane also said she found a marriage certificate at home in Sinhalese showing the marriage of a man her husband’s age to an 18-year-old woman. She could not translate the certificate but she is suspicious it is Priyanjana’s.

She said: “He was always working and never home.

“The age gap between us was 33 years but he said it didn’t bother him.

“He said age is only a number and it didn’t really bother me either. All my family and friends thought it would be a problem and it was in the end.”

Diane said she has been in contact with the British consulate.

She wants to find a lawyer who could help her sell the Sri Lanka house and finance her trip back to Scotland to rebuild her life.

She said: “I don’t want to live here anymore as my husband is gone.

“I can’t sell the house because it isn’t in my name. I’m trying to get in touch with a lawyer to see if there’s anything they can do to get the family to sign it over to me so I can go back to Scotland and start my life over again.

“His family is poor so will not be able to help me.”

“I’m having to get cash on my credit card in order to buy food because I only have a very small pension and am £1000 in debt.

“My life is ruined. I don’t know if I will ever recover from this.”

Media reports from Sri Lanka say police are investigating the murder of Priyanjana, who died at Balapitiya Hospital.

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: “Our High Commission in Sri Lanka is providing assistance.”

-Daily Record
-Agencies