Despite repeated government promises to deliver justice for journalists who have been murdered, attacked, abducted, or disappeared, the Attorney General has now instructed the release of three key suspects in the assassination of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge.

Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe has informed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that Prem Ananda Udalagama, Don Thissasiri Sugathapala, and Prasanna Nanayakkara will no longer be prosecuted and could be released.

In a letter dated 27 January 2025, the Attorney General’s Department informed the CID of this decision, stating that CID’s action regarding the matter should be informed to him within 14 days of receiving the letter.

Among the three suspects, Prem Ananda Udalagama, a former sergeant major in military intelligence, was identified by Lasantha Wickramatunga’s driver as the person who abducted him following the journalist’s murder. The identification took place on 7 July 2016 in front of Mt. Lavinia Additional Magistrate Lochani Weerasinghe.

Hettiarachchige Don Thissasiri Sugathapala, the former chief police inspector of the Mt. Lavinia Crime Branch, was the officer who found a notebook in Wickramatunga’s car, containing the registration numbers of motorcycles that had pursued him before his assassination.

Witarana Arachchige Sirimevan Prasanna Nanayakkara, a former Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of Mt. Lavinia, was accused of destroying that very notebook.