FIVE PHONES THAT FOLLOWED LASANTHA BEFORE HIS MURDER

What this footprint testimony showed was how close the investigators had come to cracking the case

We all know that the Sri Lankan public service is corrupt. How corrupt it is may never surprise us. That is how corrupt it is. Nothing is beyond this historically rotten set up. 

The protests that have engulfed the country are partly due to the rising public anger and helplessness at this. The system is corrupt because it has been made corrupt. That is why ‘system change’ became a winning campaign slogan. It is the same reason why the same slogan came back to bite the victors of the 2019 and 2020 election very painfully in their nether ends. 

Last week in a city thousands of miles away from Colombo, we were treated to how deep this rot has set in. How it is almost routine for Sri Lankan police to manipulate murder investigations at the behest of those in positions of power. 

Last week at The Hague, The People’s Tribunal on the Murder of Journalists heard evidence and testimony on the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge. Lasantha was like Icarus of myth, he flew too close to the sun, in this case too close to the political powers. It not only put him in mortal danger but also, I suspect, blinded him to the threats that he faced. 
At the tribunal, two testimonies showed us how far Sri Lankan police had closed in on solving the murder and in the same breath how officers at the same department had skuttled the investigations so badly as to make them comical. 

"Chief Inspector Nishantha Silva who headed the CID’s Organised Crime Investigation Division, in his testimony  detailed how he had been able to gain some idea of why Lasantha was murdered and some crucial clues to figure out who was behind the crime"

Chief Inspector Nishantha Silva who headed the CID’s Organised Crime Investigation Division, in his testimony  detailed how he had been able to gain some idea of why Lasantha was murdered and some crucial clues to figure out who was behind the crime. Silva fled Sri Lanka soon after Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president, and this was the first occasion he has spoken in public about his investigation. 

He said that he was brought into the investigation when his superiors felt that those investigations were not progressing anywhere. He said initial investigations were done in such a manner as to indicate that the investigators were not homed in on solving the murder. He also gave some damning insights into the haphazard manner the post-mortem report had been filed. 

Silva said that he felt the most likely reason for Lasantha’s murder was his reporting on the MIG deal. Reporting which landed him in court facing off with some of the most powerful in the country. Did he pay for his transgressions against these self-proclaimed sacred cows? Silva’s testimony was pointing that way. 

The other damning details came from the testimony by Footprint Investigators, a company specialising in cell site expertise. The company detailed how five numbers were first located near Lasantha’s Nugegoda residence and then moved in similar directions as his mobile. 
They first moved Northeast when Lasantha travelled to his wife’s house. They remained in the area when he was also there. They then moved on the same direction as Lasantha as he travelled to his office. 

What the Footprint testimony showed was how close Sri Lanka police investigators had come to cracking the case. They probably could have shed more light if not for political interference. How these phone numbers were obtained and at least one other number that has been linked to the lot have been already laid bare by the investigation. 
Yet again, we are at a juncture when there is hope that past murders, assaults, abductions and other violence directed at the Sri Lankan media community will be investigated and justice served. The list is long and, in my case, personal. 
Am I hopeful? My heart wants me to hope, my head, tempered by years dealing with Sri Lankan politics is screaming back telling me to get back to the now and here. 

The writer is a journalism researcher and a writer. He can be contacted on [email protected]