SL to question Rajapakse over editor’s abduction

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s ex-president Mahinda Rajapakse is to be questioned over the 2008 abduction of a newspaper editor, police said on Wednesday, as authorities investigate the former leader and his family over allegations of murder and fraud.

Investigators believe a group of military officials behind the abduction of the Nation news editor Keith Noyahr was also responsible for the assassination of another newspaper editor fiercely critical of Rajapakse.

The Criminal Investigations Department has told Rajapakse he will be questioned at his home in Colombo on Friday, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera told AFP. Noyahr’s abduction, which prompted widespread criticism, came after he published an article criticising a top military commander.

Prosecutors allege he was taken away in a white van and beaten up at a safe house run by the directorate of military intelligence (DMI). Noyahr has since moved to Australia.

Investigators also believe the DMI was behind the killing of Lasantha Wickrematunga, an editor who had accused Rajapakse’s defence secretary and brother Gotabhaya of taking kickbacks for arms purchases, and was due to testify in court when he was killed.