SRI LANKA: LAWYER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR COLD-BLOODED MURDER OF WIFE

March 12, 2014: The Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction of an attorney-at-law for the murder of his wife and the imposition of death sentence on the convict by the High Court of Hambantota.
Attorney-at-law, who had been indicted in the High Court of Hambantota, for committing the murder of his wife, Sandya Kanthi Ekanayake, on November 11, 2005 at Tangalle, the offence being punishable under Section 296 of Penal Code.
The High Court had convicted the lawyer of murder and imposed death sentence, on March 27, 2005. The convicted lawyer had appealed to the Court of Appeal to set aside the conviction of murder and the sentence of death.
The accused – appellant lawyer K. Amarasena, had at one time practised in the Magistrate’s Court of Walasmulla. He had married the deceased Sandya Kanthi on November 9, 2001. They had one son and had been living at the parental home of Sandya at Halmilla. Later on the lawyer had purchased a land at Middeniya, in the name of his wife and built a two storeyed house.
In the meantime, the husband had come to realise that the wife had an illicit intimacy with their driver, Upul Santha. Consequently, he had transferred the ownership of the property at Middeniya to his own mother. The wife upon hearing this had gone to the police to complain of the secret move of the husband to change the deed of the property at Middeniya. When the wife was returning from the police station, the husband who had been waiting in hiding had approached the wife and axed her to death.
The Judgment of the Court of Appeal was by Justice Sarath de Abrew with Justice H. N. J. Perera agreeing. (Sources: island.lk, 13/03/2014)