Sampath Lakmal de Silva ( – July 2, 2006) was a Sri Lankan Freelance press and television journalist specialising in defense articles and wrote for various publications including Irudina, Lakbima, Sathdina and TNL and he also worked for various television channels earlier he was the defense correspondent for now-defunct Sathdina Weekly. He was found shot dead in Dehiwela in
Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...
.
Background
Sampath Lakmal de Silva was supposed to have possessed sensitive information regarding defense personnel and there had been threats to him in the past. He was a well known and reliable informant on defense matters. There are reports he was a double agent for both the
Sri Lankan Intelligence and the
LTTE
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE; ta, தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள், translit=Tamiḻīḻa viṭutalaip pulikaḷ, si, දෙමළ ඊළාම් විමුක්ති කොටි, t ...
but there is no clear evidence on this. Upcountry Peoples' Front (UPF), P. Radhakrishnan said that Sampath Lakmal de Silva had information about killing done by the army.
Incident
Sampath Lakmal de Silva received phones and went to meet defense personnel whom he knew very well and his mother Rupa de Silva overhead him greeting the person at the other end as ''Kumar Sir'' and it was later revealed he had met one Lieutenant Kumara. Later his body was found in Dehiwela gunned down.
Reaction
The
International Federation of Journalists
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is the largest global union federation of journalists' trade unions in the world. It represents more than 600,000 media workers from 187 organisations in 146 countries.
The IFJ is an associate m ...
condemned the murder:
Government investigation
Sri Lankan defense personnel were questioned.
See also
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Sri Lankan civil war
*
Human Rights in Sri Lanka
Human rights in Sri Lanka provides for fundamental rights in the country. The Sri Lanka Constitution states that every person is entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belie ...
*
Notable assassinations of the Sri Lankan Civil War
Notability is the property
of being worthy of notice, having fame, or being considered to be of a high degree of interest, significance, or distinction. It also refers to the capacity to be such. Persons who are notable due to public responsibi ...
References
External links
Sri Lanka mission reportNine recommendations for improving media freedom in Sri Lanka – RSFMedia in Sri Lanka
1980s births
2006 deaths
Deaths by firearm in Sri Lanka
Assassinated Sri Lankan journalists
Assassinated Sri Lankan activists
People murdered in Sri Lanka
Unsolved murders in Sri Lanka
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