{"id":85916,"date":"2013-05-05T23:50:44","date_gmt":"2013-05-05T18:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=85916"},"modified":"2013-06-20T15:49:56","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T10:19:56","slug":"presidential-offspring-rohitha-rajapaksa-assaulted-rugby-referee-in-full-public-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-offspring-rohitha-rajapaksa-assaulted-rugby-referee-in-full-public-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Presidential Offspring Rohitha Rajapaksa Assaulted Rugby Referee In Full Public View"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Presidential offspring Rohitha Rajapaksa assaulted Rugby referee Dimitri Gunasekera today (5th May) at the Havelocks Grounds in Colombo after the Navy lost a qualifying match.<\/p>\n<p>The incident took place when the Police A team defeated Navy knocking the latter out of the Inter-club Rugby sevens tournament organised by the\u00a0Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Rohitha+Rajapaksa&amp;x=12&amp;y=4\">Rohitha Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>, the youngest son of President <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=7&amp;y=5\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> was captaining the Navy A team at today\u2019s game. His brother Yoshitha usually captains the team.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-offspring-rohitha-rajapaksa-assaulted-rugby-referee-in-full-public-view\/rohitha-rajapaksa-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-85959\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-85959\" title=\"Rohitha Rajapaksa\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Rohitha-Rajapaksa1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"474\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Rohitha-Rajapaksa1.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Rohitha-Rajapaksa1-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Following the Navy defeat, Rohitha Rajapaksa picked up referee Gunesekera by the collar and assaulted him in full public view, eyewitnesses say. The attack on the referee only ceased when <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Yoshitha+Rajapaksa&amp;x=5&amp;y=0\">Yoshitha Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> intervened, even slapping his younger sibling when the latter refused to break up the altercation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/presidential-offspring-rohitha-rajapaksa-assaulted-rugby-referee-in-full-public-view\/p1370641\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-85968\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-85968\" title=\"P1370641\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1370641.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"627\" height=\"474\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1370641.jpg 2178w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1370641-300x226.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1370641-1024x774.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/P1370641-800x605.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 627px) 100vw, 627px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>With referees refusing to stand to protest against the assault, the tournament was suspended for over 45 minutes. Finally, following a meeting of high level officials with the referees the tournament resumed. Both Rohitha and Yoshitha Rajapaksa were seen regularly in discussions with the referees during the rest of the evening.<\/p>\n<p>The game of Rugby in the country has been severely politicised by the Rajapaksa family in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>President Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s second son Yoshitha is the captain of the Sri Lanka Rugby team and the Navy Sports club.<\/p>\n<p>Related posts;<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a title=\"Senior Rugby Players Avoid National Team\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/senior-rugby-players-avoid-national-team\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Senior Rugby Players Avoid National Team<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a title=\"Sri Lanka To Ban Sportsmen Refusing To Represent Country\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-to-ban-sportsmen-refusing-to-represent-country\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Sri Lanka To Ban Sportsmen Refusing To Represent Country<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a title=\"Rugby Under Revised (Rajapaksa) Rules\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rugby-under-revised-rajapaksa-rules\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Rugby Under Revised (Rajapaksa) Rules<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a title=\"Appuhamy Regiment And The Recent Rugby Games\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/appuhamy-regiment-and-the-recent-rugby-games\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Appuhamy Regiment And The Recent Rugby Games<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a title=\"I Went To A Fight And A Rugby Match Broke Out!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/i-went-to-a-fight-and-a-rugby-match-broke-out\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">I Went To A Fight And A Rugby Match Broke Out!<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_43652\" style=\"width: 614px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-tomorrow-for-the-rajapaksa-cubs-namalta-hetak\/mahinda-and-sons-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-43652\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43652\" class=\"size-full wp-image-43652\" title=\"Mahinda and sons\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Mahinda-and-sons.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Mahinda-and-sons.jpg 604w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Mahinda-and-sons-300x181.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-43652\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mahinda and sons\/ File photo<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":85917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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