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 Police and some judges deliberately sabotaged and then blocked judicial steps against members of the pro-government EPDP party implicated in the murder in 2000 of Tamil journalist Mayilvaganam Nimalarajan at his home in Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, said Reporters Without Borders The result has been that six years after the death of the BBC World Service journalist, his killers have still not been tried or punished, said the worldwide press freedom organisation, calling on the government to reopen the investigation into his death.
 This was the promise made recently by the government spokesman on defence matters, Keheliya Rambukwella, to the international press freedom mission to Sri Lanka, it said.
This sixth anniversary of the cowardly murder of the Tamil journalist on 19 October 2000 comes at a particularly challenging time for press freedom in Jaffna. Four media workers, three of them working for the newspaper Uthayan, have been killed since the start of the year in this town which is held by government troops. Members of the EPDP are again suspects in some of these attacks.
All the suspects in the Nimalarajan case, members of the EPDP, were released in 2003, by a court in Vavuniya in the north of the country. Moreover the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) never managed to interview one of the suspects, Sebastianpillai Ramesh, better known as "Napoleon". Police never seriously made use of the physical evidence, including cartridge cases and fingerprints.
Vincent Brossel
Asia - Pacific Desk
Reporters Sans Fronti貥s
5 rue Geoffroy Marie
75009 Paris
33 1 44 83 84 70
33 1 45 23 11 51 (fax)
asia@rsf.org
www.rsf.org
On Saturday, August 05, 2006 a seminar on "extra judicial killings in Sri Lanka" held by the international Non-Governmental Organizations Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch at New Inn Yard, London. Around 200 people from across the political and ethnic spectrum were present at the seminar. Also present at the meeting was one Napoleon. The man who was charged with the murder of Senior BBC journalist, Mylvaganam Nimalrajan on October 19, 2000. At the time it was alleged that Napoleon had carried out the attack on behalf of the EPDP paramilitary group, because Mr. Nimalrajan's writings were highly critical of the group. Mr. Nimalrajan was the Jaffna correspondent for the Tamil daily Virakesari, the popular Sinhala weekly Ravaya and the BBC's Tamil and Sinhala services. On further research aware that Napoleon was charged with the murder case number B423 2000- and released on bail while investigations were ongoing. He had since fled Sri Lanka and claimed asylum as a political refugee in the United Kingdom. Officially there is a warrant out for the capture of Napoleon in Sri Lanka. Napoleon was born in Papalaaru in Batticaloa district. He spent his early years in Koddaikalaaru in his district of birth and then moved to Neduntheevu in Jaffna district where he murdered Mr. Nimalrajan. His Sri Lankan identity card number is M2189766. He arrived in the United Kingdom on June 03, 2004 on flight number UL505 under the false name of Roman Kumar Patrick de Silva. His initial statement was filed under the number R1104220. Currently he has sought asylum case number IG118FD- via SANG solicitors based in Barking, East London.
nitharsanam
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