Jaffna Court Permits Gotabaya Rajapaksa to Testify Virtually

05-Jun-2026

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The Jaffna Magistrate’s Court has granted permission for former President and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa to testify virtually in the case concerning the disappearance of Frontline Socialist Party activists Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan.

The case, relating to the disappearance of the two activists in Achchuveli, Jaffna, on 9 December 2011, was taken up before the Jaffna Magistrate on June 2.

Rajapaksa had previously filed an application before the Court of Appeal seeking exemption from appearing before the Jaffna court in person, arguing that doing so could pose a threat to his life. He claimed that former members of the LTTE might endanger his safety if he travelled to Jaffna to testify.

Following the application, the Court of Appeal issued an interim order preventing his appearance before the Jaffna court.

Subsequently, after he assumed office as President in 2019, proceedings against him were suspended under the constitutional immunity granted to a sitting President.

However, following his resignation in 2022, that immunity ceased to apply, creating the legal basis for summoning him again as a witness in the case.

On 30 July 2025, Rajapaksa informed the Supreme Court through his lawyers that he was prepared to testify before the Magistrate’s Court.

Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan disappeared in Jaffna in 2011 while organising a media event involving families of missing persons in the Northern Province.