Suspended jail term for editor

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 September 2000, 10:28 GMT]
Mr.Lasantha Wickrematunge, the editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper, was sentenced to two years simple imprisonment by the Colombo High Court in a criminal defamation case. The Colombo High Court Judge informed Mr. Wickrematunge that the jail sentence has been suspended for a period of five years.

The Attorney General in the indictment said that a newspaper article carried under the heading " A promising government" in the Sunday Leader of September 3,1995 was defamatory of President Chandrika.

In this case Editor Mr.Lasantha Wickrematunge and Publisher Mr.Lal Wickrematunge were indicted under Section 480 of the Penal Code read with Section of the Press Council Law with criminal defamation of President Chandrika by publishing a defamatory article.

After trial the Colombo High Court Judge, Mr.Andrew Somawanse, delivered his judgement Tuesday morning. He found the editor Mr.Lasantha Wickrematunge guilty of the offence, but acquitted the publisher Mr.Lal Wickrematunge.