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Sri Lanka's erstwhile President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was connected Tuesday (June 2, 2026) allowed to attest online successful a long-standing lawsuit astir the disappearance of 2 rights activists successful 2011.
Mr. Rajapaksa was the main bureaucrat successful the Ministry of Defence nether the Presidency of his elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, erstwhile the disappearances of quality rights activists Lalith Kumar Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan were reported.
Before their disappearance, Mr. Weeraraju and Mr. Muruganandan were reportedly readying to clasp a property league successful Colombo connected a protestation to item quality rights violations against Tamil civilians since the extremity of a subject struggle successful the land federation successful 2009.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) waged a subject run for a abstracted Tamil homeland successful the bluish and eastbound provinces for astir 30 years earlier its collapse.
On Tuesday (June 2, 2026), Mr. Rajapaksa was granted support to attest online without physically presenting himself astatine the magistrate’s tribunal successful Tamil-dominated Jaffna.
Earlier, during his Presidential term from 2019-2022, Mr. Rajapaksa appealed to the Court of Appeal that helium felt unsafe travelling to marque the tribunal quality successful Jaffna, the bluish province's capital. The tribunal upheld his plea.
At the clip of the close activists' disappearance, Mr. Rajapaksa was accused of overseeing abduction squads that whisked distant rebel suspects, captious journalists, and activists, galore of them ne'er to beryllium seen again.
He antecedently denied immoderate wrongdoing.
However, the lawsuit was revisited successful 2025, and Mr. Rajapaksa was asked to attest successful the habeas corpus exertion connected the disappearances successful Jaffna.
