Day: 6 August 2016

By Chandrasiri Mahagama- Hawa Eliya Nuwara Eliya High Court Judge Lalith Ekanayake yesterday sentenced to death seven members of a family on conviction of collective culpability in a killing in year 2000. Those sentenced to death were Palani Muthuraj, Palani Arimar, Palani Neela Mogan, Palani Subramanium, S Vigneswaran, Neela Mogan Kamalanadan and Neela Balachandran respectively. Muthuraj, Arimar, Neela Mogan and Subramanium are brothers, while Vigneswaran who was also sentenced to death is the son of Palani Subramanium. Kamalanadan and Balachandran are sons of Neela Mogan, one of the seven found…

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by Saman Indrajith UPFA MP Dallus Alahapperuma says the stories being floated in some quarters that moves are underway to strip former President Mahinda Rajapaksa of his civic rights should not be taken lightly. That could be a trial balloon, he told The Island last night. Alahapperuma was responsing to a story that a group of senior UNP ministers had decided to meet President Maithripala Sirisena and request him to appoint a special Presidential Commission to investigate attempts to create a schism in the Malwatte Chapter of the Siyam Nikaya under…

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By Jehan Haniff Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V. Anandasangaree yesterday lashed-out at Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) politicians for not taking any action against, what he termed provocative actions of the Government to acquire private lands for use of the security forces in the North and East. Anandasangaree told “The Island” that ITAK parliamentarians in the Tamil National Alliance should quit their positions and make way for people who really care for the Tamils to come forward. “They are playing a double game,” he said. “Today, the Government…

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TORONTO — A Toronto woman ordered out of Canada for being a self-declared member of a terrorist group argues the only evidence against her is her own past claims, which she says are not credible. Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, the Minister of Public Safety and the Federal Court of Canada, however, reject her revision of her past in Sri Lanka during a bloody civil war. Jayasiri Puvanenthiram was first declared inadmissible to Canada in 2004 for being a member of an organization engaging in terrorism. She has doggedly fought…

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By Yudhanjaya Wijeratne – Yudhanjaya Wijeratne Pada Yatra: rough translation, pilgrimage. They’ve been around for awhile, but the most famous is Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent Salt Tax protest. That original Pada Yatra started with 80 people and went down in history as the famous Dandi Salt March: it even inspired Martin Luther King, Jr. Leave it to the Joint Opposition to organize their own Pada Yatra. Mahinda Rajapaksa and Co basically rallied thousands of people who marched, on foot, from Kandy to Colombo, while their political overloads trundled by gently in…

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Parliamentarian Mahinda Rajapaksa betrayed the country like Don Juan Dharmapala, Skills Development and Vocational Training State Minister Palitha Range Bandara said. He was addressing the media at Siri Kotha yesterday. “Mahinda Rajapaksa betrayed the country while entering into an agreement with a Chinese company through the proposed Port City project. While entering into the agreement, Rajapaksa has approved to offer the sole ownership of a land plot of the proposed Port City to China,” the state minister said. “It is undoubtedly a betrayal of the country to a foreign nation.Nevertheless,…

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The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) leadership should take the slogans made at the Joint Opposition’s Paada Yatra seriously as it is obvious that they are attempting to take over power through riots, Nava Sama Samaja Party leader Prof Wickramabahu Karunaratne said. He also said President Maithripala Sirisena as the SLFP leader and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should take this incident seriously as the Joint Opposition is attempting to disrupt Parliament acting as a Constitutional Council by such activities. Karunaratne said the activities of the Joint Opposition tallies with the…

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