JM COURTS

Namal Rajapaksa Remanded Until Oct. 16 as Krish Bribery Inquiry Widens

Namal Rajapaksa Remanded Until Oct. 16 as Krish Bribery Inquiry Widens

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Colombo court on Tuesday extended the remand custody of Namal Rajapaksa, a member of Parliament and the eldest son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, until Oct. 16 in a bribery investigation involving payments linked to Krish, an Indian property company. The order also applies to Janaki Siriwardena, a former director of Krish. Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama said he would rule on bail applications for both suspects on Oct. 16. The magistrate issued the
JM COURTS October 2026
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Daughter, Son-in-Law Face Court Proceedings in Killing of Jaffna University Lecturer

Daughter, Son-in-Law Face Court Proceedings in Killing of Jaffna University Lecturer

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — Police have filed a formal charge sheet in the killing of a senior University of Jaffna lecturer whose body was found in a secluded area four days after her death in March, clearing the way for preliminary proceedings against her daughter and son-in-law. The two suspects, who have remained in remand custody since their arrests, were brought before the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court under security on Monday. Police submitted the charge sheet prepared after their investigation into
JM COURTS October 2026
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Gnanasara Returns to Prison as Court Hears Why He Went Silent

Gnanasara Returns to Prison as Court Hears Why He Went Silent

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A lawyer for Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero, the Buddhist nationalist monk arrested over the weekend after Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court invalidated his presidential pardon, told the Court of Appeal on Monday that the monk had been unable to contact his legal team because of a weak telephone signal at the meditation hermitage where he was staying. The explanation came in response to a question from Justice Lakmali Karunanayake, who asked why, if the monk had not been evading t
JM COURTS October 2026
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Court of Appeal Dismisses Gotabaya Rajapaksa's Petition Seeking Protection From PTA Arrest

Court of Appeal Dismisses Gotabaya Rajapaksa's Petition Seeking Protection From PTA Arrest

COLOMBO: The Court of Appeal on Thursday (October 1) dismissed, without taking it up for hearing, a writ petition filed by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa seeking an order preventing his arrest and detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in connection with investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. The order was delivered by a two-judge bench comprising Court of Appeal President Justice Rohantha Abeysuriya and Justice Sarath Dissanayake after considering submissions m
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What the Court Found: How 15 Men Helped Pave the Way for Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Bombings
Mohamed Sariboo Adam Lebbe, known as Gafoor Mama, raises his index finger as he is escorted from the Colombo High Court complex after being sentenced in the Easter Sunday bombings case. The gesture, associated with tawhid, the Islamic belief in the oneness of God, became closely associated in Sri Lanka with Zahran Hashim, the preacher who led the 2019 attacks.

What the Court Found: How 15 Men Helped Pave the Way for Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Bombings

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam When a special three-judge High Court in Colombo convicted 15 men on Sept. 22 over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, the indictment before it contained 23,270 counts. The judgment describes how the convicted men trained recruits in weapons and religious ideology, collected explosives and rented houses that were later found to hold bomb-making materials. Two of them, the court found, admitted a man injured in a test explosion to a Colombo hospital under a false name in Au
JM Exclusive September 2026
Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Aruliniyan Mahalingam
Supreme Court Backs Judicial Age Extension, Rejects Independence Challenge

Supreme Court Backs Judicial Age Extension, Rejects Independence Challenge

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has determined that a constitutional amendment raising the retirement age of judges can become law with a two-thirds majority in Parliament and does not require approval by the people at a referendum, the Speaker, Jagath Wickramaratne, told lawmakers on Tuesday. The court also determined that a companion bill amending the Judicature Act, which would extend the tenure of judges in the lower courts, is not inconsistent with the Constitution and may be
JM COURTS September 2026
Jaffna Monitor

Jaffna Monitor
Sri Lankan Prosecutors Say Military Intelligence Sat on Warnings Before Easter Bombings

Sri Lankan Prosecutors Say Military Intelligence Sat on Warnings Before Easter Bombings

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan prosecutors told a court on Tuesday that military intelligence officers had detailed information about the Islamist group behind the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings months before the attacks but did not pass it to the police, and that investigators were examining whether the information had been deliberately withheld. Dileepa Peiris, an additional solicitor general, made the allegations before the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court in the case of Suresh Sallay, a retire
JM COURTS September 2026
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Sri Lanka Supreme Court Rejects Full-Bench Request in Challenge to Judges’ Retirement-Age Amendment

Sri Lanka Supreme Court Rejects Full-Bench Request in Challenge to Judges’ Retirement-Age Amendment

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request for all of its judges to hear challenges to a proposed constitutional amendment that would extend the retirement ages of judges, deciding that the proceedings would continue before a five-member bench headed by the chief justice. The ruling disposed of an unusual preliminary dispute in a closely watched constitutional case: who should sit in judgment on legislation that, if enacted, could extend the tenure of members o
JM COURTS August 2026
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