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