{"id":203873,"date":"2019-08-07T13:45:58","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T08:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=203873"},"modified":"2019-08-07T18:49:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T13:19:48","slug":"sirisena-awards-lankas-highest-military-ranks-to-mass-murder-and-corruption-suspect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sirisena-awards-lankas-highest-military-ranks-to-mass-murder-and-corruption-suspect\/","title":{"rendered":"Sirisena Awards Lanka&#8217;s Highest Military Ranks To Mass Murder And Corruption Suspects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Maithripala Sirisena has just promoted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Wasantha+Karannagoda\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Wasantha Karannagoda<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, a suspect charged with the murder of 11 young men abducted and illegally detained by his intelligence officers in 2008-2009 to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_203876\" style=\"width: 882px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Roshan-Goonetilake-and-Wasantha-Karannagoda.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-203876\" class=\" wp-image-203876\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Roshan-Goonetilake-and-Wasantha-Karannagoda.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"872\" height=\"507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Roshan-Goonetilake-and-Wasantha-Karannagoda.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Roshan-Goonetilake-and-Wasantha-Karannagoda-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 872px) 100vw, 872px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-203876\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Roshan Goonethilake and Wasantha Karannagoda<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In a shocking move President Sirisena issued a gazette in this regard on 5 August.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year Karannagoda the former Navy Commander was a fugitive from justice and the Fort Magistrate declared him a flight risk and imposed a travel ban on his passport.<br \/>\nDays later Karannagoda successfully petitioned the Supreme Court and got a stay order against his arrest by the CID on the murder and conspiracy tk murder charges.<\/p>\n<p>Insiders say Sirisena might be trying to curry favour with former Defence Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Gotabaya+Rajapaksa\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/span><\/strong><\/a> who is tipped to be nominated as candidate from the SLPP with the promotion for Karannagoda. The former war time navy commander is a close associate of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and is likely to play an important role in a future administration headed by the ex Defence Secretary.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The same Gazette notice also announced the promotion of Air Vice Marshall <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Roshan+Goonethilake\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Roshan Goonethilake<\/span><\/strong><\/a> to the rank of Marshall of the Air Force. Goonethilake was the war time chief of the Sri Lanka Air Force.<\/p>\n<p>Goonethilake has been questioned multiple times in connection with the 2006 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=MiG+Deal\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">MiG-27 procurement<\/span><\/strong><\/a> by the Sri Lanka Air Force. Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his first cousin and former Ambassador to Russia Udyanga Weeratunge are under investigation for money laundering and misappropriation to the tune of USD 14 million through the purchase of the MiG 27s from Ukraine. FCID investigations found Sri Lankan state funds had been channeled to a shell company named Bellimissa Holdings located in the British Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_203884\" style=\"width: 910px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Original-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Roshan-Goonethileke.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-203884\" class=\"size-full wp-image-203884\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Original-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Roshan-Goonethileke.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"1274\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Original-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Roshan-Goonethileke.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Original-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Roshan-Goonethileke-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Original-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Roshan-Goonethileke-768x1087.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Original-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Roshan-Goonethileke-723x1024.jpg 723w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-203884\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Original gazette<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_203883\" style=\"width: 910px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/amended-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Rodhan-Goonethileke.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-203883\" class=\"wp-image-203883 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/amended-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Rodhan-Goonethileke.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"1274\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/amended-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Rodhan-Goonethileke.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/amended-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Rodhan-Goonethileke-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/amended-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Rodhan-Goonethileke-768x1087.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/amended-gazette-Wasantha-Karannagoda-and-Rodhan-Goonethileke-723x1024.jpg 723w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-203883\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An &#8220;amended&#8221; gazette announcing the controversial promotions circulated on social media and messaging groups this morning<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":203876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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