A Sri Lankan military intelligence officer has been arrested over the murder of Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickramatunge.

The officer, identified as P Udalagama, is reportedly a sergeant attached to the military intelligence unit. He is due to be produced before an identity parade, reports Hiru News.

A 14 year old Tamil school child who was raped last month was beaten by Sri Lankan police officials as she tried to report the crime, reports Colombo Telegraph.

The girl, who was reportedly abducted and raped by her school bus driver on June 19th, attempted to report the crime to Haputale police on the 7th of July.

A woman police constable proceeded to beat the child, warning her not to reveal details of the rape to the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO). If the child spoke, the constable “threatened to kill the victim’s parents and everyone else in the family,” according to reports.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski reiterated the importance of international involvement in an accountability mechanism to prosecute for violations of international humanitarian law, in a press roundtable in Colombo on Thursday.

“An erosion in the confidence" of Sri Lanka's courts led to the call for foreign judges to become involved said Mr Malinowski. “Sri Lanka itself has contributed judicial expertise to other countries and it has perhaps benefited from that.”

"These are complicated issues and there needs to be a process of consultation with all in order to ensure these things are done in a way that earns confidence of the people," he added, speaking alongside US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, Nisha Biswal.

After his meeting, he tweeted,

“In Colombo, stressed US support for #SriLanka democratization, reconciliation and fully seeing through Geneva commitments.”

A list of supposed LTTE cadres who surrendered to the Sri Lankan military has been rejected by a court in Mullaitivu, after the military only submitted names of those who had gone through a government rehabilitation process.

Mullaitivu District Magistrate S M S  Samsudeen rejected the list on Thursday, which was submitted after families of missing Tamils filed Habeas Corpus petitions, for their relatives who surrendered to the military in the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009.

During Major General Chanayaka Gunaratna, head of the Army’s 58th Division, admitted during proceedings earlier this year that the army had kept a list of all those that surrendered. Yet the military had twice failed to submit that list.