{"id":208862,"date":"2020-03-26T16:25:20","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T10:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=208862"},"modified":"2020-03-29T14:06:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-29T08:36:54","slug":"army-butcher-sunil-ratnayake-released-amidst-coronavirus-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/army-butcher-sunil-ratnayake-released-amidst-coronavirus-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"Army Butcher Sunil Ratnayake Released Amidst Coronavirus Outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former staff sergeant of the Army Sunil Ratnayake was released from death row\u00a0on a special presidential pardon today.<\/p>\n<p>Ratnayake\u00a0was sentenced to death over\u00a0murder of\u00a0of eight Tamil civilians including four children in Mirusuvil, Jaffna on 19th December 2000.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Army-Butcher-Sunil-Ratnayake-Released-Amidst-Coronavirus-Outbreak.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-208864\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Army-Butcher-Sunil-Ratnayake-Released-Amidst-Coronavirus-Outbreak.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"901\" height=\"673\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Army-Butcher-Sunil-Ratnayake-Released-Amidst-Coronavirus-Outbreak.jpg 945w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Army-Butcher-Sunil-Ratnayake-Released-Amidst-Coronavirus-Outbreak-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Army-Butcher-Sunil-Ratnayake-Released-Amidst-Coronavirus-Outbreak-768x574.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 901px) 100vw, 901px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sunil Ratnayake was sentenced to death on June 25, 2015 after a 13-year-trial.<\/p>\n<p>on 24 Dec. 2000, some bodies were found in the septic tank of a toilet by the side of the army camp. The matter was then reported to the Chavakacheri Courts. When the judge inspected the scene, four youths under the age of 18 were discovered besides four men with decomposed bodies, throats slit and eyes blindfolded. Some had their legs and hands chopped off. One had his skin peeled, looking pink.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Among the eight murder victims was five-year-old Visvarayan Prasath. Even the most hard-hearted could not fail to be moved by the sight.<\/p>\n<p>Further to it, an inquiry was held at the Chavakacheri Magistrate\u2019s Court and a report was sent to the Attorney General\u2019s Department. The Attorney General filed action in the Jaffna High Court. A direct and important eye-witness was Ponniah Maheswaran, besides others. Staff Sergeant Ratnayake was given a death sentence. Appeal to the Supreme Court failed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":208864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Army Butcher Sunil Ratnayake Released Amidst Coronavirus Outbreak - 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\/army-butcher-sunil-ratnayake-released-amidst-coronavirus-outbreak\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Army Butcher Sunil Ratnayake Released Amidst Coronavirus Outbreak - 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