Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered to give evidence over disappeared activists

The former Sri Lankan president and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been ordered to appear before the Colombo Chief Magistrates Court on 29 September and give evidence remotely in proceedings concerning the enforced disappearance of activists Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan, in what would be his first appearance in a case linked to the disappearances carried out under his tenure.

The order was issued on Friday by the Jaffna Chief Magistrate S. Lenin Kumar, in the long-running habeas corpus proceedings concerning the two men, who disappeared in December 2011.

Lalith and Kugan were organising a protest by families of the disappeared, due to take place in Jaffna on Human Rights Day, 10 December 2011. They were last seen leaving Muruganandans home in Aavarangaal at around 5pm on the eve of the demonstration and have not been seen since. At the time, Rajapaksa was serving as defence secretary, the post he held throughout the final phase of the Mullivaikkal genocide.

Their relatives filed a habeas corpus petition before the Court of Appeal in Colombo in 2012, and during proceedings the court directed the Jaffna Magistrates Court to investigate witnesses connected to the disappearance and submit a report. The inquiry before the Jaffna court began on 19 September 2012.

Fifteen years of avoidance

Rajapaksa was added to the list of witnesses in 2017 and ordered to appear, but has never given evidence. He successfully petitioned the Court of Appeal, arguing that his life could be threatened by former LTTE members if he appeared in Jaffna, and secured an interim injunction preventing his appearance there. Proceedings were then suspended entirely under presidential immunity after he took office in 2019, resuming only when that immunity lapsed on his resignation in 2022.

In July 2025 his counsel told the Supreme Court that he was willing to give evidence but wanted it heard in Colombo, again citing security concerns, having previously indicated he would appear before any court in Sri Lanka other than the one in the Tamil homeland. In December the Jaffna court ordered him to substantiate those claims in an affidavit, ruling that any such assertions must be formally placed before the court for proceedings to continue.

When the case was taken up on 2 June, the court permitted him to testify remotely. At a hearing on 19 June he was ordered to appear in person before a major court in Colombo and give his evidence to the Jaffna court by online connection, and directed to name the Colombo court and provide three dates on which he would be available. Fridays order fixed 29 September at the Colombo Chief Magistrates Court.

The case has drawn repeated protests in Jaffna condemning his refusal to face the court, organised by families of the disappeared and the Frontline Socialist Party, to which Lalith and Kugan belonged.

Rajapaksa has never been held accountable for his role in the Mullivaikkal genocide, in which tens of thousands of Tamils were killed in 2009, nor for the states wider campaign of enforced disappearances, torture and mass detention. Sri Lanka has one of the highest numbers of enforced disappearances in the world, and families of the disappeared have maintained continuous roadside protests since February 2017 without a single one of their core demands being met.