The Sunday Leader
January 8, 2009, in an area outside Colombo , Sri Lanka
Eight helmeted men on four motorcycles forced Wickramatunga’s
car to the side of a busy street and beat him with iron bars and wooden poles. He
died in a local hospital a few hours later.
Wickramatunga, editor-in-chief of the weekly Sunday Leader,
was a prominent senior Sri Lankan journalist known for his critical reporting
on the government. According to his brother Lal Wickramatunga, chairman of the
paper's parent company, Leader Publications, the editor had received anonymous
death threats for months.
Lasantha Wickramatunga's wife, Sonali
Samarasinghe-Wickramatunga, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that
the couple had been followed by two men on a motorcycle as they ran errands earlier
that morning. Samarasinghe-Wickramatunga left Sri Lanka shortly after her
husband's death. The couple had married only two weeks before.
Medium: Print
Job: Editor
Beats Covered: Human Rights, Politics, War
Gender: Male
Local or Foreign: Local
Freelance: No
Type of Death: Murder
Suspected Source of Fire: Government Officials
Impunity: Yes
Taken Captive: No
Tortured: No
Threatened: Yes
