Kadirgamar’s neighbour unaware of assassins' presence

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 August 2005, 22:42 GMT]
Mr. Lakshman Thalayasingam, the occupant of the house from where Kadirgamar's assassins are believed to have operated, said at the preliminary inquiry at the Colombo Magistrate's Court on Tuesday that he wasn't aware of Foreign Minister Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar’s assassination until the soldiers alerted him around 1:00 a.m. on August 13th.

In his account, Lakshman Thalayasingam said that he rarely used the bathroom in the upper floor of his house from where the snipers had taken position to target Kadirgamar.

He further said that there is no access to the upper floor from the backyard of his house.

Meanwhile, Colombo Magistrate Ms. Kusala Sarojini Weerawardene who conducted the preliminary inquiry ordered the criminal investigation authorities to carry out DNA tests on items found at the scene of the assassination, legal sources said.

Mr. Thalayasingam, who is a son of a senior police officer and who captained the prestigious Colombo Royal college cricket team in the mid sixties, has been occupying the Bullers Lane house for the past ten years with his wife.