The Badulla High Court has sentenced Samagi Jana Balawegaya MP Chaminda Wijesiri to one-and-a-half years imprisonment following his conviction on charges stemming from a 2019 incident involving police officers.

The Badulla High Court on Tuesday sentenced Chaminda Wijesiri, a Member of Parliament representing the Samagi Jana Balawegaya party, to 18 months in prison. Judge Jayaram Trotsky found Wijesiri guilty of multiple charges including wrongful restraint, assault causing bodily harm, and criminal intimidation of police officers. The court also convicted Wijesiri's driver, Bandula Rathnayake, on four counts, though court records indicate Rathnayake has since deceased. A police officer from the ministerial security division, Rasika Karunathilaka, was found guilty on three charges.

The case traced its origins to February 2019, when an altercation erupted near the Bandarawela roundabout in the Badulla district. According to evidence presented during trial, the confrontation began after a police jeep overtook the vehicle carrying Wijesiri and his companions. The initial traffic incident escalated into a broader confrontation that prosecutors argued involved assault and intimidation directed at the police officers present.

NewsFirst reported that the case involved three defendants tried before the court, with the judge delivering separate verdicts based on individual culpability. The specific details regarding the death threats mentioned in some accounts versus the criminal intimidation charges cited in others suggest varying characterizations of the same allegations, though sources do not clarify this distinction. The sentence represents one of the more significant legal outcomes involving a sitting parliamentarian in recent proceedings.