{"id":172578,"date":"2017-01-11T14:13:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T08:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=172578"},"modified":"2017-01-13T12:14:50","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T06:44:50","slug":"justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice For Raviraj: Attorney General Wants Retrial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just weeks since the Colombo High Court acquitted all five suspects involved in the murder of former TNA MP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Nadaraja+Raviraj&amp;x=7&amp;y=5\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Nadaraja Raviraj<\/span><\/a>, the Attorney General has sought a retrial.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_152989\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-152989\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-152989\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Raviraj\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-152989\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Raviraj<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Attorney General today made an appeal to the Appeal Court against the recent judgement made by the Colombo High Court, and has sought a retrial into the murder case of the Parliamentarian, who was shot dead in November 2006 in Colombo.<\/p>\n<p>In December, the Colombo High Court acquitted all five suspects including three former intelligence officers of the Sri Lanka Navy. The decision was received with vehement opposition with even Ministers in the government condemning the court decision and also questioning the independence of the country\u2019s judiciary. Many who voiced their disappointment over the court ruling questioned if the trial was fair, taking into consideration that the members of the special jury, the judge and even the suspects were all Sinhalese while only the victim was Tamil.<\/p>\n<p>TNA Parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran, who also represented the victim\u2019s family in the case said he did not accept the ruling. Sumanthiran pointed out that the court verdict against Raviraj\u2019s murder trial was one reason why the TNA was continuously advocating for foreign judges to be present in an effort to maintain the independence of the judiciary, even when it comes to matters relating to war crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Minister of National Coexistence Dialogue and Official Languages Mano Ganesan expressed his disappointment soon after the ruling, tweeting \u201cIt is frustrating because it\u2019s as if Raviraj shot himself and his security.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":152989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Justice For Raviraj: Attorney General Wants Retrial - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Justice For Raviraj: Attorney General Wants Retrial - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-11T08:43:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-13T06:44:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"225\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"162\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/\",\"name\":\"Justice For Raviraj: Attorney General Wants Retrial - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-11T08:43:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-13T06:44:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj.jpg\",\"width\":225,\"height\":162,\"caption\":\"Raviraj\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Justice For Raviraj: Attorney General Wants Retrial\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Justice For Raviraj: Attorney General Wants Retrial - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Justice For Raviraj: Attorney General Wants Retrial - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2017-01-11T08:43:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-13T06:44:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":225,"height":162,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/","name":"Justice For Raviraj: Attorney General Wants Retrial - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj.jpg","datePublished":"2017-01-11T08:43:20+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-13T06:44:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj.jpg","width":225,"height":162,"caption":"Raviraj"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/justice-for-raviraj-attorney-general-wants-retrial\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Justice For Raviraj: Attorney General Wants Retrial"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/raviraj.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172578"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172612,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172578\/revisions\/172612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}