Sri Lanka: RSF calls on the new government to ensure the case on the disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda is fully transparent
As the trial into the disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda continues with a new hearing on 6 December, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the new government to ensure the judicial process is transparent and impartial, given that nine army intelligence officers are allegedly involved in the case.
Prageeth Eknaligoda, a cartoonist and political columnist with the Lanka E-news website, was abducted on 24 January 2010 in Homagama, a city near the capital Colombo, two days before the re-election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. A new hearing in the case, which has been stalled since 2019, against nine members of the military intelligence services accused of his disappearance will take place on 6 December. The National People's Power (NPP) — the coalition of President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka who was elected this past September — has promised to promptly complete “investigations into political killings and abductions of journalists [...] that have not been solved for a long time.”
"Prageeth Eknaligoda's family has been waiting desperately for answers on his disappearance for 14 years. RSF calls on the authorities to ensure that the current trial in this emblematic case is transparent and impartial. Those responsible for this crime must be prosecuted, regardless of their political affiliations or their links with the army. RSF also calls for protection mechanisms to be put in place for witnesses and investigators.
During the “black decade” of Mahinda Rajapaksa's presidency — which lasted from 2005 to 2015 and was marked by the suppression of Tamil separatist guerrilla movement in 2009 — his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Permanent Secretary to the Minister of Defence, oversaw a crackdown on journalists. Re-launched in 2015, the investigation into the disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda revealed that the journalist had been taken to a military camp. However, the investigation was hampered after Gotabaya Rajapaksa came to power (2019-2022).The nine soldiers charged were released on bail and the trial has still not concluded.
Sri Lanka is ranked 150th out of 180 countries in RSF's World Press Freedom Index for 2024.
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