A Sri Lankan soldier was acquitted by an all Sinhalese jury, after previously being sentenced to death for the killing of five Muslims, in Pulmoaddai, Trincomalee.
Gardiya Weligamage Indra Kirthi de Silva, from the Sinha regiment, was accused of killing the Muslims with a machine gun in May 1995. The soldier was charged with the killing of Abdul Javahir Kaiz, Umardeen Meera Sahidu, Mohideen Bava Aviva Umeema, Kachicha Mohamed Balkis Umeema and Kachichia Mohamed Payas.
He was sentenced to death on 26 October 2009 but his lawyers appealed the conviction. After hearing evidence, the jury decided that de Silva was not guilty of the killings.
An Amnesty International document, detailing extrajudicial killings in May 1995, reported the incident as follows:
Five Muslim civilians, including a 2-year-old child, a 10-year-old child, a 23-year-old woman, a 56-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman, were killed when members of the army stationed at Pulmoddai retaliated against local civilians on 6 May 1995. A local member of parliament alleges that the retaliation occurred several hours after an attack by the LTTE during the night on a sentry point at Arafath Nagar, Pulmoddai. In the LTTE attack, five soldiers had been killed. According to a statement issued by the operational headquarters of the Ministry of Defence in Colombo, quoted in the Island newspaper of 8 May 1995, four civilians had been "caught in crossfire".
However, according to Amnesty International's information, the army fired indiscriminately from their camp into the village killing four civilians and wounding several others. One of the wounded, the 10-year-old boy, later died of his injuries in hospital.
Reports of Extrajudicial Executions During May 1995 - Amnesty International (1 June 1995)