The Jaffna Magistrate’s Court has directed former Sri Lankan president and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa to submit an affidavit detailing any alleged threats to his life, after he once again failed to appear before the court in connection with the abduction of Lalith Kumar Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan.
The order follows Rajapaksa’s absence from proceedings linked to the fourteen-year-old disappearance case, with his legal team claiming that he faced “security threats” that prevented him from attending court in Jaffna. The magistrate ruled that any such claims must be formally placed before the court for proceedings to continue and instructed Rajapaksa to file the affidavit by 6 February 2026.
Lalith Kumar Weeraraju and Kugan Muruganandan were abducted in Jaffna on 10 December 2011, as preparations were underway to mark World Human Rights Day. The two activists were forcibly disappeared while organising a press conference in the city and have not been seen or heard from since.
Speaking to the media, Attorney-at-Law Nuwan Bopage said that Rajapaksa had previously assured the Supreme Court that he was willing to testify before the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court, which led to the case being taken up again. However, Rajapaksa’s lawyers informed the court that, due to unspecified “security concerns”, he was seeking to provide evidence through contemporaneous electronic audiovisual means instead of appearing in person.
Bopage said that he objected to this application on behalf of the petitioners, insisting that Rajapaksa must appear before the court physically to give evidence. After considering submissions from both sides, the magistrate ordered Rajapaksa to place his claims regarding threats to his life on record through an affidavit.
The latest development comes months after Rajapaksa informed the Supreme Court that he was prepared to testify in the habeas corpus case relating to the disappearance of Lalith and Kugan, while seeking to shift proceedings away from Jaffna. In July 2025, his counsel told the Supreme Court that Rajapaksa was willing to give evidence but requested that it be done in Colombo, again citing security concerns.
At the time of the abduction, Rajapaksa was serving as Sri Lanka’s defence secretary, a role he held throughout the final phase of the Mullivaikkal genocide. His tenure oversaw the mass killing of tens of thousands of Tamils in 2009, atrocities that are increasingly recognised as genocide. The disappearance of Lalith and Kugan forms part of a broader pattern of enforced disappearances carried out under his tenure.
Rajapaksa has repeatedly avoided giving testimony in cases relating to wartime abuses and enforced disappearances. In October 2024, he refused to travel to Jaffna to provide evidence in this case, again invoking security concerns. A previous summons issued by the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2019, a decision later challenged by the families of the disappeared.
Despite years of legal proceedings, sustained advocacy by families, and pressure from international human rights groups, Rajapaksa has never been held accountable for his role in the Mullivaikkal genocide or the state’s campaign of enforced disappearances, torture, and mass detention.
