A silent protest was held in front of the Avissawella court on 9 July demanding the immediate release of journalist Hemantha Liyanapathirana, who has been held in Kuruwita prison for almost 10 months on false charges alleged by the Avissawella police.

The case filed by the police before the Avissawella Magistrate’s Court against Journalist Liyanapathirana was called on 9 July. In addition, the motion filed before the Avissawella High Court seeking bail for Liyanapathirana was also heard today.

Journalist Hemantha Liyanapathirana, who was working for the Hiru website, was abducted by a group of Special Task Force soldiers in the Meegoda on the evening of 24 September 2023 and was brutally beaten and handed over to the Avissawella police the same night.

He has been kept in remand custody in Kuruvita prison for almost 10 months now.

When Liyanapathirana was handed over to the Avissawella Police, he was wearing only his underwear. On 26 September 2023, the Avissawella Police had admitted Liyanapathirana to the Avissawella Hospital due to chest pain.

The police called a relative of Kasun in Olabodawatte to call and bring journalist Liyanapathirana. Later, the police special task force soldiers put his hands behind his back and put a polythene bag on his head and held him until he suffocated. Later, he told his wife that three Special Task Force soldiers climbed over his body and assaulted him on his chest and face.

The police suspect that Olaboda Kasun is the shooter in the incident where four youths who were traveling in a three-wheeler were shot in Kegalle Talduwa. He came on a motorcycle and carried out the shooting. At the time of the shooting, one young man died on the spot and two more young men died months later after being taken to the hospital.

Journalist Liyanpathirana was abducted and brutally tortured claiming that he has a connection with an incident where he was said to have been in contact with Manna Ramesh, who the police say is an underworld leader.

The soldiers of the special task force who brought the journalist Liyapathirana to that house, arrested him, beat him and interrogated him and released him and later kidnapped Liyanapathirana again near the Meegoda school. The Special Task Force soldiers threw him on the ground near a vegetable shop near Megoda School. When Liyapathirana was shouting to save him, the public came forward to save him. However a man in civilian clothes pointed to his ID cards and said that we are from the Special Task Force. 

Later, while the public was watching, the Special Task forces took Liyanapathirana away in a white KDH vehicle. He was caught near Meegoda School by a group of people wearing civilian clothes on motorcycles. The public says that the KDH car arrived after that.

A senior police officer has ordered the soldiers of the special task force to bring Kasun to his house, arrest him, brutally beat him, and after releasing him, arrest him again. There is a doubt whether this police chief is the officer who was affected by journalist Liyanapathirana in the Aruna newspaper’s feature called “Sahana Mediriya” (Relief Room) 

In that feature, he revealed the police corruption frauds, the injustices the police do to the public and the lower police officers suffering from the higher ranked police officers as well as the sexual harassment of the police women by the high ranking police officers.

When Liyanapathirana was abducted, he was working as a journalist at Hiru media and before that he also worked at Derana Media. Liyanapathirana is famous as a journalist in Meegoda.

If he was in contact with Manna Ramesh for a professional purpose or for some other purpose, the police had the ability to check Liyanapathirana’s phone and arrest him legally. But behind the abduction and brutal beating of Liyanapathirana, there is a serious doubt as to whether Ramesh’s case was made up for revenge. By abducting and torturing him without legally arresting him, the police have violated the country’s fundamental law as well as human rights.

The protesters asked the working-oppressed masses to stop false accusations against journalist Liyanapathirana and stop the government’s crackdown under the so-called “Justice operation”

Although the writer informed the comrades of the Frontline Socialist Party as well as the left-wing comrades of Avissawella area for the protest to release journalist Liyanapathirana, the other left-wingers again showed their fakeness, except for comrade Sajith and Nimal and a few members of his family.

The Sri Lanka Professional Journalists’ Association contributed to the struggle to free journalist Liyanapathirana.