Monday, January 21, 2013

Female lawyer supporting ex-CJ strangled

A female lawyer who has supported the impeached chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake has been strangled by a stranger on the road, Lawyers Collective member Sunil Watagala said.

She had gone to Kirulapone police station to lodge a complaint regarding an assault of a person and his mobile phone being dashed to the ground, at court premises.

On her way back, a motorcyclist had stopped her vehicle and told her to down the shutters and strangled her.

She had honked her horn and people had assembled, when the assailant had fled.

Mr. Watagala declined to reveal the name of the female lawyer, as she is in a state of shock and fright.

He said leading lawyers Jayampathy Wickramaratne, Romesh de Silva and MP M.A. Sumanthiran have received threatening letters for having supported the sacked CJ.

Lawyers have decided to collect signatures for public petitions seeking protection for their threatened colleagues.

Transparency International director Shan Wijetunga said they have also asked the government to provide protection to lawyers who had supported the ex-CJ.
SLM