The Sri Lankan police announced that blood samples collected from the suspected killers of TNA MP Nadarajah Raviraj are to be sent for DNA testing, more than 8 years after the parliamentarian was gunned down in Colombo.
Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigations Department (CID) made the announcement, stating the the blood samples of Sri Lankan navy personnel suspected of carrying out the execution had been dispatched for testing.
The killing follows the arrest of three members of the navy, including two officers, for the November 2006 murder.
Mr Raviraj, a human rights lawyer and MP with the Tamil National Alliance, was widely respected and was conferred the highest civilian honour of the LTTE, the Maamanithar award, in 2006. Thousands of Tamil-speaking people observed shutdowns across the North-East, and the up-country, in protest at his killing.
Then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered an inquiry and two suspects, Nalaka Mathagaweera and Aruna Shantha Ediriweera, were arrested in 2007. Mr Rajapaksa requested assistance from Britain’s Scotland Yard, who sent a team to work with the Criminal Investigation Department, who looked at evidence. Nothing came of the inquiry.
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