Sarath Ambepitiya (November 19, 1946 – November 20, 2004) was a Sri Lankan jurist. He was serving as the Judge of the Colombo High Court when he was assassinated. The assassination, orchestrated by a drug lord sentenced by the Judge, gripped the nation and forced the government to crack down on organized crime.

Education

Educated at the Royal College, Colombo, Ambepitiya entered the Sri Lanka Law College to study law and was called to the bar as an attorney at law.

Career

After practicing law for some time, he joined the judiciary in 1977 and served as a

Magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

in many parts of the island. Later he was appointed Chief Magistrate of Colombo and then Additional District Judge of Colombo. Ambepitiya's first appointment as a High Court Judge was in

Galle Galle ( si, ගාල්ල, translit=Gālla; ta, காலி, translit=Kāli) (formerly Point de Galle) is a major city in Sri Lanka, situated on the southwestern tip, from Colombo. Galle is the provincial capital and largest city of Southern ...

, after which he was appointed as a High Court Judge in Colombo. He was a noted for his fearlessness in making strong judgments and taking up cases that other judges feared to accept. Ambepitiya presided over many important criminal cases including the

Central Bank bombing The Central Bank bombing was one of the deadliest attacks carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the separatist civil war in Sri Lanka between the government and the Tamil Tigers. Incident The attack took place on 31 ...

Murder

He was shot dead by assassins at his official residence along with his bodyguard, Police Inspector Upali Bandara, on November 20, 2004. At the time of his death, he was one of the most senior judges of the High Court and was expected to be promoted to the

Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordanc ...

. Only the day before, he celebrated his 58th birthday with a visit to the Kelaniya temple. The Chief Justice described Ambepitiya as "the most fearless judicial officer we had. His death is a great loss to the judiciary". The President later gifted his official residence to his family.

Conviction

Five men were indicted over the murder of Ambepitiya. This included the alleged mastermind, Mohammed Niyas Naufer alias Potta Naufer on charges of conspiracy to commit murder; and Sujith Rohana Rupasinghe, Suminda Nishantha,

Udara Perera ''Udara'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae. The species are found in the Indomalayan and the Australasian realms. Species *Subgenus ''Udara'' Toxopeus, 1922 ** '' Udara akasa'' (Horsfield, 1828) - white hedge blue (India) ** ...

and

Lasantha Kumara Lasantha is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Lasantha Alagiyawanna (born 1967), Sri Lankan politician * Lasantha Rodrigo (born 1938), Sri Lankan cricketer *Lasantha Wickrematunge Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge ( si, ලස� ...

, who were alleged to have carried out the murder. On July 4, 2005, amid high security and following a three-month trial, a High Court Trial-at-Bar reached a unanimous verdict finding the five men guilty of murdering Ambepitiya and his bodyguard. All five were sentenced to death by hanging.Sarath Malalasekera and Wasantha Ramanayake.

References

External links

Justice Killed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambepitiya, Sarath 1946 births 2004 deaths High Courts of Sri Lanka judges Sinhalese judges Sinhalese lawyers Sri Lankan murder victims Alumni of Royal College, Colombo People of British Ceylon People from Galle Assassinated Sri Lankan judges