Ahimsa contests US District Court decision
Slain journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge’s daughter, Ahimsa and her legal team filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, contesting the United States District Court’s decision to grant former Sri Lankan Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa immunity for the suit related to the assassination of her father, San Francisco based The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) said.
The United States District Court for the Central District of California held that it lacks the jurisdiction to consider Wickrematunge’s claims because, in the court’s view, Rajapaksa is entitled to common law foreign official immunity for the acts that are alleged—acts of torture, extrajudicial killing, and crimes against humanity. The court erroneously awarded Rajapaksa immunity even though Sri Lanka did not request it, and incorrectly found that Rajapaksa’s actions were committed within his official capacity as Sri Lanka’s secretary of defence, despite the fact that Lasantha’s assassination was neither authorized nor ratified by the Sri Lankan government.
The District Court made no finding on the actual merits of the allegations against Rajapaksa, which include his alleged responsibility for the extrajudicial killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge and for the Sri Lankan government’s campaign of violence against journalists during Sri Lanka’s civil war, the CJA said.
The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) is a San Francisco-based human rights legal organization dedicated to deterring torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious human rights abuses around the world through innovative litigation, policy and transitional justice strategies.
(Source: Daily Mirror)
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Some people evidently have a lot of money to throw about willy nilly at lawyers, on evidently lost causes! Then again, whether it’s their own or someone else’s money they are throwing willy nilly is also a valid question – given that some have very, very deep pockets when they are on a special-interest, special mission!
Jeeeez!
It is a really really really Biiiiiiiiiiiig mouth,
Big Yankees may be adoring it!
Please stay there.
If my dad met with an untimely death in the hands of state sponsored killers, I would do the same too.
Legal action costs money; most people don’t understand money is just a temporary resource which you will leave behind when you depart.
If the Nation gets the right persons in leadership roles, issues such as this and many, many others can be resolved in 5 yrs.
See how Mandela lead SA is dealing with Apartheid issues during his term as President and how he lead the Nation forward, having dealt with Apartheid issues.
True, if my dad was killed by whoever, I would seek justice too! However to jump to conclusion that her dad was killed by ‘state sponsored killers’ is a purely slanderous because so far what we have are a bunch of here-says and allegations that have not been proven in Court. Then again, spewing venom against Sri Lanka by anti-Sri Lankan elements using fake-news and false propaganda (propaganda that will not stand up in Court) is also nothing new. In this case while I sympathize with her, if I were her, I would also not be in denial or shameless over the fact that her dad’s media did everything possible, as we would see, read and understand at that time, to harm our brave Ranavirus campaign to liberate our Motherland (and Tamils too who were being held hostage) from LTTE terrorism. There is no denying also that most of those virulent attacks against that effort came at very sensitive times in that campaign!