Somaratne Rajapakse

Lance Corporal R. Dewage Somaratne Rajapaksa is a Sri Lankan soldier who was sentenced to death for the gang-rape and murder of Krishanti Kumaraswamy and three others. He is currently in prison.

Gang rape and murders

Krishanti Kumaraswamy was an A-level student Chundikuli Girls' College. At 3pm on 7 September 1996, as Krishanti was returning home after sitting an examination, she was arrested by Corporal Rajapaksa at the army checkpoint on the Jaffna-Kandy Highway at Kaithady. Rajapaksa tied Krishanti's hands together and then he and two other soldiers, W. A. W. Alwis and D. M. Jayathilake, pushed her into a bunker as she screamed. She was subsequently stripped naked.

Five days later the bodies of the four victims were found in a shallow grave within a cemetery. Six soldiers and a policeman were charged. P. A. Samarawickrema was arrested in connection with incident but later released. Six (Somaratne Rajapaksa, R. J. M. Jayasinghe, G. P. Priyadarshana, A. S. P. Perera, D. M. Jayathilake and D. V. I. Kumara) were sentenced to death. The three others (W. A. W. Alwis, D. G. Muthu Banda and A. P. Nishantha) were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and fined 50,000 rupees (US$ 780). Investigations were begun and on 16 June 1999 Rajapaksa was brought before Jaffna Magistrate's Court. In a long statement Rajapaksa alleged that there had been widespread detention, torture and murder of civilians who had been rounded up for questioning by the army.

Attacks and death threats Whilst in Welikada Prison Rajapaksa was asked by guards to sign a statement to the effect that he had been emotionally disturbed when he made the statement to the High Court about the mass graves and that it had been untrue. The appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court on 3 February 2004.