Court Orders Gotabaya to Submit Affidavit in Lalith–Kugan Disappearance Case

12-Dec-2025

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The Jaffna Magistrate’s Court has ordered former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa to submit an affidavit explaining the security threats preventing him from appearing in person to testify in the disappearance case of Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan.

The two activists were abducted in December 2011 while organizing a protest for families of the disappeared.

An abduction-related petition was filed in 2012, and after several rounds of hearings, Rajapaksa was listed as a witness in 2017. He repeatedly told the court he could not travel to Jaffna for security reasons.

During the hearing on Dec 11, his lawyers requested permission for him to testify virtually. The court then ordered him to file an affidavit detailing the security concerns and postponed the next hearing to February 6.