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Former parliamentarian Duminda Silva and four others received death sentences in connection with the killing of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra. The case was taken up before a trial-at-bar. The defendants were charged with unlawful assembly and attempted murder. The sentence was handed down on Former Parliamentarian Duminda Silva, Anura Thushara Demel, Chaminda Ravi-Jayanath alias ‘Dematagoda Chaminda’, Sarath Bandara and Janaka Bandara Galegoda. It was revealed during the trial that one of the defendants in the case, Janaka Bandara Galegoda was reported missing. Issuing the verdict, court informed that Former MP Duminda Silva had led the attack. Court also informed that the Former MP had been under the influence of alchohol at the time. This case was taken up for trial on October 12, 2015 before High Court judges Shiran Gooneratne, Padmini Ranawaka Goonetilake and MCGS Morais

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Sri Lanka in May 2017, Sri Lankan Health Minister and Cabinet spokesperson Rajitha Senaratne said. Mr. Modi will inaugurate a hospital in the country and also participate in an event at Colombo, Dr. Senaratne told The Hindu, following the weekly cabinet briefing in Colombo. The events will be held around Vesak festival, one of the most important Buddhist festivals celebrated in Sri Lanka. The hospital is being built -- with Indian assistance -- in Hatton, a town in Nuwara Eliya, in Sri Lanka’s Central Province that is home to the Tamils of recent Indian origin who work largely in the island’s famed tea estates. India is helping build a hospital there. In March 2015, Mr. Modi was in Sri Lanka – the first bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister in 28 years. He was the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the Jaffna in the island’s Tamil-majority Northern Province. Health Minister Senaratne said he also discussed the possible import of medicines from India with his counterpart, J. P. Nadda, who is in Sri Lanka for a summit organised by the World Health Organisation. -Agencies Source: The Hindu - See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/36851/modi-to-visit-sri-lanka-in-2017#sthash.X5mNj0z6.dpuf

A couple have been charged after allegedly keeping a woman as a slave in their home for eight years. Kumuthini Kannan, 48, and Kandasamy Kannan, 52, from Sri Lanka, have been charged with one count of possessing a slave and one count of exercising ownership over a slave. They allegedly kept a woman in their home in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley between July 2007 and July 2015.  Defence lawyer Sam Norton said the crime ‘simply didn’t happen’ when the pair appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday. ‘The complainant went from saying there’s no crime to, “I’ve been held as a slave”,’ Mr Norton told the court. ‘We have a situation where her version shifts 180-degrees.’ The court heard the woman - who cannot be named for legal reasons - had a meeting with Australian Federal Police on September 24 last year, and also spoke with Border Protection officers. She had been ‘polite but guarded’ prior to the September 24 meeting, the court heard. She attended Box Hill Hospital on September 23, 24 and 29 and is currently in Australia on a justice visa. A social worker will give evidence at a committal hearing next year. ‘Her health is improving,’ the prosecutor told the court.  Mr Norton said the accused deny the allegations the woman was kept as a slave. The two co-accused will face a committal hearing on May 8 next year and are not in custody. The maximum penalty for a slavery offence is 25 years’ imprisonment. -Agencies Source: Daily Mail Australia - See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/36856/sri-lankan-couple-accused-of-keeping-a-slave-for-eight-years#sthash.8Wv9AQ5W.dpuf

Former Senior DIG, Anura Senanayake, and former Narahenpita Crimes OIC, Sumith Perera, who were arrested in connection with the murder of rugby player Wasim Thajudeen, have been further remanded till September 21 by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court. When the case was taken up today (7), the state attorney said that the phone calls made to and from the Presidential Palace on the day of the murder are also being investigated.  He said that these investigations have uncovered a connection from the Presidential Palace and Carlton House in Hambantota. Meanwhile the state attorney said that the report on the CCTV footage sent to Canada for examination has been received and that according to it the footage is too unclear. - See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/36853/anura-senanayake-and-sumith-perera-further-remanded#sthash.7IMt3lyg.dpuf

The brazen invasion of Sri Lankan airspace by Indian Air Force jets and transport aircraft on June 4, 1987, enraged Sri Lankan army officers who were, at that time, doggedly and successfully carrying out “Operation Liberation” against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Vadamarachchi region of Jaffna peninsula.   “It was honestly, a terrible scene. My rage resurfaced; if we had any powerful anti-aircraft weapons in our possession, we would have not only shot down these aircraft but would have crushed them with a sledgehammer into smithereens and flushed them down the toilet,” writes Maj.Gen.Kamal Gunaratne in his book Road to Nandikadal released on here on Tuesday.   “We had no power or capability to shoot down the hooligans who were raping our airspace. We were all totally helpless and powerless against this violation. Great leaders in our presence like Brig. Kobbekaduwa and Col.Wimalaratne were equally powerless. There are no words sufficient to describe the anger, hatred, disgust and sadness which shot through my entire being. For all of us, it was a huge humiliation.”   Blaming the non-equalitarian Indian social order for the way India was treating Sri Lanka, Gen.Gunaratne asks: “As a country which believes, promotes and maintains the caste system in its very social fabric, wasn’t this like treating Sri Lankan as Harijans (low caste people) by a bunch of Brahmins (high caste people)?”   A further reason for dismay for Gen.Gunaratne and his comrades was the world’s turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to Sri Lanka.   Though the Government of Sri Lanka took this matter up with the international community, no country took it seriously and the message conveyed by the world’s powers was: “ India is the regional power. Anything that happens in the region should not affect the Indian interests. Therefore work in collaboration with India.”   The Sri Lankan government then decided to abort the Vadamarachchi operation which was then poised to progress into its second phase.   But this did not stop the LTTE from continuing its aggression. On July 5, 1987, it introduced to the world the first “suicide bomber”, Capt.Miller, who drove a lorry loaded with explosives into the Nelliady army camp in Vadamarachchi.   Indo-Sri Lanka Accord   About the India-Sri Lanka Accord of July 1987, Gen.Gunaratne says that it was  “pushed down  the throats” of Sri Lankans and adds: “ Everybody wished and prayed that India would learn a good lesson from the LTTE one day, for its role in breeding and nurturing terrorists against our motherland.”   However, he completely disapproves of the naval rating’s rifle attack on Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi when Gandhi was inspecting a Guard of Honor at the President’s House in the Fort after signing the Accord on July 29, 1987.   “When a Guard of Honor is presented by one country to the leader of another, and if a member of that guard assaults the leader who was being honored, it is a disgrace of the highest order to the host country. Not only us, as members of the Sri Lankan Forces, I think all Sri Lankans irrespective of their age, gender or race, should feel ashamed of this highly unethical action of this sailor,” Gen.Gunaratne says.   He then reproduces a poem written by fellow officer Lt.Palitha Weerasinghe, lamenting the “disgraceful act and unpardonable offense” of  the naval rating.   On the deployment of the Indian Keeping Force (IPKF) in Sri Lanka’s Tamil-speaking North and East, from July 30 onwards, Gen.Gunaratne says: “ There were some amongst us who were tired of fighting and were therefore very happy about this new development, but for us battle-hardened young officers and men, it was another bitter experience,” New Indian Express reports.   -Agencies - See more at: http://www.adaderana.lk/news/36857/invasion-by-indian-jets-in-1987-enraged-sri-lankan-army-officers#sthash.cDv46Gt1.dpuf