Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been directed to appear before the Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court on 29 September to testify in proceedings relating to the alleged enforced disappearance of two activists in Jaffna in 2011.
The Jaffna Chief Magistrate's Court has issued an order requiring former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to provide evidence on 29 September in a long-standing habeas corpus case concerning the disappearance of activists Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan. The two men vanished on 9 December 2011 while preparing to organise a protest by families of the disappeared ahead of Human Rights Day.
The disappearances occurred when Rajapaksa served as Defence Secretary, a position he held throughout Sri Lanka's armed conflict. Relatives of the missing men filed a habeas corpus petition with the Court of Appeal in Colombo in 2012, prompting the Jaffna Magistrate's Court to begin investigating the case in September that year. Rajapaksa was added to the witness list in 2017 but did not appear, citing security concerns about potential threats from former LTTE members.
Proceedings were halted when Rajapaksa assumed the presidency in 2019 due to presidential immunity. The case resumed following his resignation in July 2022. In recent months, Rajapaksa's legal representatives indicated he would testify but requested that proceedings take place in Colombo rather than the North. The court initially permitted online testimony but subsequently ruled that he must appear in person at a major Colombo court while providing evidence to the Jaffna court via remote connection. The 29 September date represents the culmination of efforts spanning more than a decade to secure his testimony in the case.
