Independent lawyers’ report says Scotland Yard merely confirmed predetermined conclusion
The late Lalith Athulathmudali's widow, Srimanie requested a team of four senior lawyers to examine the New Scotland Yard findings on the assassination of her husband. They found that the New Scotland Yard team merely confirmed a predetermined conclusion that the former Minister was murdered by the LTTE.
The lawyer team was headed by former Ambassador to the UN Daya Perera, PC, former Bar Association President Ranjit Abeysuriya PC, Lakshman Kadirgamar PC and S.L. Gunasekera MP.
Extracts of their report.
Mr. Athulathmudali was shot by an unknown assassin at about 8.45 pm and he died 1 1/2 hours later. It is clear that the New Scotland Yard (NSY) was commissioned because of the political implications of the murder. The NSY report itself refers to an immediate backlash to the murder by anti-Government supporters accusing President Premadasa, his supporters and the Police of complicity and a cover-up.
The NSY report starts off on the wrong footing stating that it was summoned to dispel the popular suspicion that the Government was involved in the murder rather than to find out the truth.
President Premadasa had withdrawn Mr. Athulathmudali's security despite him being a former National Security Minister. During the political meeting which was addressed by Mr. Athulathmudali, the town of Kirulaponne had street lights but there were no lights in the vicinity of the grounds where the meeting was held. The OIC of the Kirulaponne police station has told the press that he had orders from a senior officer not to provide security for the meeting. The OIC was transferred soon after he made that comment to the press. The OIC denied such orders had been given, but later a police spokesman admitted that an investigation is underway into the OIC's remarks.
Eyewitnesses had seen the assassin shoot Mr. Athulathmudali and receive gunshot injuries from Mr. Athulathmudali's personal bodyguard. The assassin had fallen down but got up again and run into the darkness. The following morning, the Kirulaponne Police reported the body of a youth found on Mugalan Road, a road just 200years from the scene of the murder (despite a police search party immediately after the shooting not finding such a body the previous night).
At the inquest that followed, Police referred to an Identity Card that was found near the body. But this evidence was produced before the magistrate later. The NSY report says the ID was a "valuable clue". Examination of this ID card later in London proved it to be a forgery. Furthermore, the NSY report says nothing about three discrepancies in the Police evidence regarding a set of keys, firearms and the type of grenade found next to the body.
The experts ask why the NSY took seriously the 'rumour' that they had been hired ten days before Mr. Athulathmudali was murdered, so much as to contradict such rumour as being "unfounded". It says the 'background information' on Mr. Athulathmudali in the NSY report was seriously flawed.
It questions the NSY report finding dismissing the eyewitnesses to the shooting saying that the assassin was shot in the chest and bleeding from the chest, while the body found down Mugalan Road had no such injuries and confirming that Ragunathan alias Appiah Balasingham was the assassin and rejects as rumour that it was somebody else's body that was left down Mugalan Road.
There is a contradiction in the NSY report that refers to eyewitness reports given to the Police after the shooting – it says "fairly accurate" on page 6 of the report, and on page 7 it says they were "misleading".
The experts say that the NSY report infers the LTTE was behind the murder, but does not provide any evidence to provide a link between the assassin they claim to be the assassin and the LTTE.
In a parting shot at the NSY, the experts say that the New Scotland Yard is not what it used to be, and their report on the assassination of Mr. Athulathmudali "leaves us none the wiser about the murder"