115 Facts About Lasantha Wickrematunge

Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge was a high-profile Sri Lankan journalist, politician, broadcaster, and human rights activist who was assassinated in January 2009.

Lasantha Wickrematunge's assassination sent shockwaves across the country, as he was one of the nation's most influential journalists and most-well-known political figures and raised questions about freedom of expression in the country.

Lasantha Wickrematunge had been on Amnesty International's endangered list since 1998, when anti-tank shells were fired on his house by unidentified assailants in a van.

Lasantha Wickrematunge spent his adolescence in Britain, where he graduated high school and eventually returned to Sri Lanka, where he started law school.

Lasantha Wickrematunge began his career as a lawyer, practicing as a defense attorney for eight years under Ranjit Abeysuriya.

Whilst practicing law, Lasantha Wickrematunge made his way into the political scene before entering into Journalism starting with The Island and Sun newspapers.

Lasantha Wickrematunge contested the 1989 Parliamentary election from a Colombo seat with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and then became the private secretary to the world's first female prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

Lasantha Wickrematunge then crossed parties, moving to the United National Party and was advisor to Ranil Wickremasinghe.

In 1994 Lasantha Wickrematunge started the Sunday Leader with his brother Lal Lasantha Wickrematunge.

Lasantha Wickrematunge reported critically on both the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels, and the Leader soon became "well known as the island's best independent newspaper".

Lasantha Wickrematunge later stated that once the paper was started, he had intended to return to law, but found himself unwilling to give up journalism's excitement.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was a writer for Time magazine at this time and was a political commentator while he hosted his broadcast programs including Good Morning Sri Lanka.

At the height of his career Lasantha Wickrematunge was feared by senior ministers and the most powerful in the nation and political leaders on both sides at various times sought to persuade Lasantha Wickrematunge into accepting political positions by offering him ministries of his choice.

In 2000, Lasantha Wickrematunge conducted an investigation into Kumartunga's education qualifications.

Lasantha Wickrematunge challenged Kumaratunga to release her documentations of certification and went on to publish a letter from the university that stated Kumaratunga was never registered as a student.

Lasantha Wickrematunge filed a fundamental rights application with the Supreme Court, fought the closure and secured a court victory striking down the law allowing government to curb the fourth estate.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was known for his trademark phrase "unbowed and unafraid" inspired from the Invictus poem by William Ernest Henley which he used as his motto and philosophy.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was vocal about his frustrations by the issues faced by vulnerable populations and expressed his agitation against state terrorism.

Lasantha Wickrematunge largely impacted his Tamil audience who felt he supported and articulated their issues.

In 2008, Mahinda Rajapaksa, furious over the paper's reporting, called Lasantha Wickrematunge and shouted at him that "I will destroy you" if the paper's coverage did not change; the president had described him as a "terrorist journalist".

Lasantha Wickrematunge worked for TNL TV where he hosted his own nightly political debating segment.

Several years in to his political programs with TNL, Lasantha Wickrematunge was asked by MTV Channel to host Good Morning Sri Lanka which he hosted till 2007.

Lasantha Wickrematunge concealed his identity as Suranimala and soon it became the most widely read political column in any newspaper in Sri Lanka for its explosive, investigative revelations and Suranimala quickly became a thorn in the flesh of the Ranasinghe Premadasa government.

Lasantha Wickrematunge took Suranimala with him when he started The Sunday Leader in 1994.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was subjected to government sponsored media scrutiny and campaigns depicting him as a "traitor".

Lasantha Wickrematunge condemned and spoke out against the treatment and oppression of the Sri Lankan Tamils and opposed Gotabaya Rajapaksa's war strategies and continually called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Lasantha Wickrematunge investigated corrupt military procurement deals and spoke out strongly for a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict and continued to debunk what he saw as "government propaganda" on the war.

Lasantha Wickrematunge felt that while it was important to eliminate the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam it was important to respect the lives and rights of Tamil civilians.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was one of the country's only leading figures to speak out against the Sri Lankan government during the time of war and began to be viewed as "the single biggest stumbling block to all out massacre in the north".

In 2008 Lasantha Wickrematunge's name was added to a "Traitor list" that was published on the Defense Ministry's official website and State Intelligence Service began surveilling Lasantha Wickrematunge's phone lines.

The claim alleged Lasantha Wickrematunge was followed and seen entering the home of a foreign agent after his meeting with then president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The government had suspected Lasantha Wickrematunge of revealing information disclosed to him by the president to intelligence agents of a foreign government from this visit.

The indications of Lasantha Wickrematunge working as an espionage were however unsubstantiated and there has never been any evidence presented that supported the allegation and Lasantha Wickrematunge's close coterie of friends and collegaues have denied this claim.

Lasantha Wickrematunge who was working at the Sun newspaper as a sub editor, was brought in for questioning by the Criminal Investigation Department over his close ties with Kumaratunga.

The interrogation led Lasantha Wickrematunge to quit his job at the Sun newspaper.

Lasantha Wickrematunge's wife jumped over his body as he was being assaulted to protect him and they were both injured in the attack.

Years later after the assault, when the hit men who were subsequently apprehended, Lasantha Wickrematunge asserted that both he and his wife did not wish for the assailants to be punished and asked his lawyer to drop any charges.

However Lasantha Wickrematunge's lawyers had advised him against it because they told him it would be setting a bad precedent.

In June 1998, Lasantha Wickrematunge began to notice that his home was under surveillance.

Lasantha Wickrematunge reported that a white van with tinted windows was regularly parked outside his family residence.

Lasantha Wickrematunge said that receiving threats was not unusual for him, and that such threats would come in often times during his TV programme telecast on TNL TV which he hosted.

On 5 September 2000, Lasantha Wickrematunge was found guilty of criminally defaming Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga in a 1995 article in The Sunday Leader.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for five years.

In January 2005, Lasantha Wickrematunge exposed the 'Helping Hambantota' scandal in The Sunday Leader.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was threatened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa with whom he had a close personal friendship with for over 20 years.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was allegedly abused in foul language in a telephone call on 11 January 2006.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was detained briefly at Bandaranaike International Airport on 21 February 2006 as he arrived for a flight to Geneva.

Airport officials had claimed that Lasantha Wickrematunge required "special permission" to leave Sri Lanka.

In December 2006, an unsuccessful attempt was made to arrest Lasantha Wickrematunge for "Endangering National Security" after he published a report exposing a Rs.

Lasantha Wickrematunge addressed the media and a large gathering of supporters outside the premises of The Sunday Leader and stated that he will not seek safe passage overseas and will face arrest and all political oppression levelled against him and "stand unbowed and unafraid".

Lasantha Wickrematunge arrived at the location with other UNP politicians to condemn the attacks.

Lasantha Wickrematunge made his last public appearance and statement as he condemned the attack on Sirasa and called it an "act of terrorism".

Lasantha Wickrematunge would meet with Rajapaksa in secret, late at night and in the early hours of the morning when he knew he would not be followed.

Rajapaksa claimed that Lasantha Wickrematunge was "one of his very good friends" and that they met often, usually around "midnight".

President Kumaratunga who later became aware of these meetings referred to Rajapaksa as a "Reporter for Lasantha Wickrematunge" and alleged that he leaked many government and cabinet secrets to him.

When Rajapaksa was declared as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament on 6 February 2002 following the appointment of Ranil Wickremasinghe as prime minister, Lasantha Wickrematunge welcomed him warmly.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was among those who helped Rajapaksa come up in to power during this difficult phase in his political career.

In late 2004, Basil Rajapaksa had approached Lasantha Wickrematunge to join and help him run the 2005 Sri Lankan presidential election campaign for Rajapaksa which Lasantha Wickrematunge declined.

In January 2005, Lasantha Wickrematunge exposed the 'Helping Hambantota' scandal and his newspaper continued to cover the scandal for weeks after Lasantha Wickrematunge investigated and unearthed evidence of Prime Minister Rajapaksa's alleged involvement in transferring over Rs.

Lasantha Wickrematunge's investigation resulted in the Criminal Investigation Department inquiry being brought to a standstill by Chief Justice Sarath Silva, who made an apology to the citizen's of Sri Lanka for ordering the halt of the investigation and allowing Rajapaksa to be elected as president.

Lasantha Wickrematunge filed a police complaint against Rajapaksa and published Rajapaksa's threats to him.

Rajapaksa and Lasantha Wickrematunge were from then on sworn enemies and Leader Publications continued week after week to splash investigative stories of alleged corruption in Rajapaksa's government.

In 2008, Rajapaksa desired to reconcile with Lasantha Wickrematunge and requested his physician Lindsay Eliyantha White to help bring both Lasantha Wickrematunge and himself back together again.

On 18 October 2007, attorney-at-law Ali Sabry and lawyers representing Rajapaksa wrote to Lasantha Wickrematunge threatening to sue him for defamation for LKR2 billion in damages.

Several weeks later, Lasantha Wickrematunge was assassinated days before he was to testify and give evidence in court.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was taken to the Colombo South Teaching Hospital.

Lasantha Wickrematunge had informed somebody to inform me that he was in danger.

Lord Malloch-Brown Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said in a statement to the UK Parliament that the British government condemned the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge and said that it was the duty of the authorities to take prompt action into these incidents:.

In July 2016, it was revealed by investigators that Dias, who worked as a Chauffeur for Lasantha Wickrematunge had been blindfolded and abducted by an Army Intelligence officer.

Lasantha Wickrematunge agreed to identify the person who abducted him in a lineup.

On 27 September 2016, an Exhumation of Lasantha Wickrematunge's remains took place under a court order, after police investigators sought permission for a new examination due to contradictory medical and post mortem examination reports.

In November, during the 2018 Sri Lankan constitutional crisis, Nishantha Silva one of the lead investigators in Lasantha Wickrematunge's case was transferred from the Criminal Investigation Department to the Negombo Police division on a service requirement.

On 14 August 2019, Lasantha Wickrematunge's daughter accused Ranil Wickremesinghe of using her father's name to win votes during the election and failing to do enough to prosecute Lasantha Wickrematunge's killers and accused Wickremesinghe of protecting Gotabaya Rajapaksa in an open letter.

In July 2020, Shani Abeysekara former senior superintendent of police who headed the Criminal Investigation Department and was leading the investigation into Lasantha Wickrematunge's death was arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division.

Lasantha Wickrematunge's family stated they believed he was being targeted for exposing human rights abuses implicating top politicians.

In June 2020, Lasantha Wickrematunge's daughter appealed to the National police commission to block the appointment of Prassana Alwis as director of the Criminal investigations department claiming that the department had caught him tampering with important evidence.

In July 2020, Criminal investigations department brought a news editor into questioning over a 2017 news report covered on Lasantha Wickrematunge's murder demanding the editor reveal his sources.

Rajapaksa alleged that the case filed against him by Lasantha Wickrematunge's daughter was "politically motivated" by the United National Party to stop him from contesting the Presidential Election that year.

Lasantha Wickrematunge met his wife Raine Lasantha Wickrematunge in 1981 when he started working at the Sun newspaper.

Lasantha Wickrematunge had been recruited to the subs news desk by his boss who had asked his wife-to-be, to train Lasantha Wickrematunge and other new interns in the art of sub-editing.

Lasantha Wickrematunge's brother had worked for Multi-Packs, a company that printed Sinhala cartoon periodicals.

Lasantha Wickrematunge married his second wife Sonali Samarasinghe less than two weeks before his assassination at the end of 2008.

Friends and co-workers that were close to Lasantha Wickrematunge described him as a devout Christian and said it was his faith that provided him solace.

Lasantha Wickrematunge won the hearts of the nation for his courage and commitment to Sri Lanka's advancement.

Lasantha Wickrematunge's legacy has had a significant influence on the media and the political and human rights movement in Sri Lanka and was regarded as a giant in the media landscape.

Lasantha Wickrematunge used his influence to propose and mainstream an alternative media narrative unpopular with those in power but a vivid reflection of the times.

Internationally, Lasantha Wickrematunge is an icon to practitioners of freedom of the press and an inspiration to journalists worldwide.

Lasantha Wickrematunge openly advocated parity, peace and a negotiated settlement to the ethnic strife.

Lasantha Wickrematunge's investigations led to hundreds of military intelligence officers, generals, businessmen, corporations, politicians and officials being exposed in corrupt deals in Sri Lanka.

Lasantha Wickrematunge regularly exposed atrocities for which security forces were suspected.

Lasantha Wickrematunge condemned the government as "perhaps the world's only administration to bomb its own people".

Lasantha Wickrematunge editorialized and persistently exposed colossal tax evasions and kickbacks from defense deals and cabinet ministers "organizing fake travel documents for assassins and renegade rebel leaders" and kept the nation well informed on corruption and governmental malpractice.

Lasantha Wickrematunge championed and spoke out especially in favor of Tamil and Muslim minorities and the rights of the LGBT community in Sri Lanka and is lauded in the Tamil community for his consistent calls for equality and a non violent, peaceful resolution between the Tamil and Sinhalese people.

In 2009, a monument of Lasantha Wickrematunge titled "Unbowed and Unafraid" by the sculptor Peter Sandbichler stood displayed outside the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna.

Lasantha Wickrematunge laid bare in his human rights advocacy the brutality of the 30-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Tamil Tigers.

Lasantha Wickrematunge espoused that while the LTTE had to be eradicated, it was more important to diplomatically address the root causes of terrorism and urge the government to view Sri Lanka's ethnic strife in the context of the country's history and not through the telescope of terrorism.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was one of the most persistent and loudest critics of the Rajapaksa government and criticised the regime over the conduct of the war and lack of safety for its civilians trapped by the fighting.

Lasantha Wickrematunge saw the military's occupation of the country's north and east, as treating the Tamil people of those regions to live "eternally as second-class citizens".

Lasantha Wickrematunge regarded that the Sri Lankan government were themselves resorting to terrorism by bombing LTTE targets from the air and viewing civilian hospitals in LTTE controlled zones as targets.

Lasantha Wickrematunge believed in "advocating peace as a matter of justice" and believed in "hearing the voice of the underdog".

Lasantha Wickrematunge believed in the practice of standing for the kind of free and equal country he felt Sri Lanka should be.

Lasantha Wickrematunge condemned both the LTTE and the military's occupation of the north and east of Sri Lanka in its final days of completion of the conflict.

Lasantha Wickrematunge openly stated that his concerns for the violations of the Tamil citizens should not hide his disdain for the LTTE.

Lasantha Wickrematunge asserted that if speaking out for the welfare of minorities labeled him as a "traitor" it was a label he wore proudly.

Lasantha Wickrematunge backed the United National Party and the party's policies.

Lasantha Wickrematunge voiced the need for equality and the urgency of the Sri Lankan people to live in peace and harmony during the country's conflict.

Lasantha Wickrematunge described himself as an Idealist and was one of the country's few figures during his lifetime who spoke out and editorialized in support of gay rights and called for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Sri Lanka.

Lasantha Wickrematunge spoke out for the rights of the Muslims, low-caste and the disabled in the country and would use his political standing to implement these views into action whilst in the thick of the policy-making and decision-making process of the United National Party.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was viewed by his critics as being excessive in his anti-government criticism of excesses.

Lasantha Wickrematunge was respected as one of the first editors in Sri Lanka who gave importance to the coverage of humanitarian strife.

Lasantha Wickrematunge mirrored the "pain of a protracted conflict" and the lacking of space for dissent.

Lasantha Wickrematunge championed public-spirted journalism and sought to ensure the content was analytical, insightful, and humane.

Lasantha Wickrematunge had many critics who were quick to condemn his methods of writing as "advocacy journalism".

Lasantha Wickrematunge was awarded the Louis Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism of Harvard University's Nieman Foundation the James Cameron Memorial Trust Award, and the American National Press Club's John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award.

In 2010, Lasantha Wickrematunge was declared a World Press Freedom Hero of the International Press Institute.