SWRD Bandaranaike:

The assassination aspect

50th death anniversary was on September 26, 2009

Firoze Sameer

Continued from Saturday, September 26

The 1st and 2nd accused were sentenced to death. They were both defended by an English silk, Phineas Quass.

However, the Court of Criminal Appeal presided by Chief Justice Hema H. Basnayake with - Justices MC Sansoni, HNG Fernando, OBE, N. Sinnetamby and LB de Silva, altered the sentences to life imprisonment, having accepted the argument of senior counsel Guy Wikramanayake, QC, that the Act which re-introduced the death penalty for murder did not in specific terms re-introduce such penalty for conspiracy to commit murder.

The 3rd accused Anura de Silva was found not guilty by a unanimous verdict of the Jury: he was defended by Kenneth Shinya assisted by K. Ratnesar. The 4th accused Somarama, was sentenced to death. Somarama, then 48-years old, was hanged at Welikada Prison by the State executioner Lewis Singho and his assistant Subatheris Appu on July 6, 1962: a time when the Army-Police Coup conspirators of January 27, 1962 were being held in detention. Ven. Somarama was defended by Lucien G. Weeramantry, who later published the book, Assassination of a Prime Minister (Geneva, 1969). Mr. (later Sir) Dingle Foot QC, appeared on an honorary basis for Ven. Somarama, at the final appeal before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

The 5th accused, Inspector of Police Newton Perera, escaped the gibbet by a Jury verdict of 5-to-2 in his favour: he was defended by N. Satyendra, son of the brilliant Senator S Nadesan, QC, assisted by A. Mahesan.

Prosecution

The prosecution team was led by a lawyer from the unofficial bar, George E. Chitty, QC, specially retained by the Attorney General and he was assisted by Crown Counsel Ananda Pereira and LBT Premaratne (later QC). Such arrangement resulted in Deputy Solicitor-General ACM Ameer (later QC) resigning his post in protest since he had led evidence in the lower court. Ameer was later appointed Attorney General by the Dudley Senanayake Government of 1965-70.

Convicts

The 1st accused died of a heart ailment aged 46-years after having served time at Welikada prison for 71/2-years of his sentence. The Dudley Senanayake Government on

May 7, 1966 had commuted the sentences of the 1st and 2nd accused to 20-years. According to former Deputy Commissioner of Welikade Prison RJN Jordan, the 1st accused used to neglect his health by over-eating.

The 2nd accused served for 171/2-years and was released on August 4, 1977, 14-days after the JR Jayewardene Government’s landslide victory at the hustings.

The 2nd accused was not ‘lucky’ to have benefited by the concession granted five years earlier when a Justice Ministry order on April 6, 1972 under Emergency Regulations provided for prisoners who were sentenced to over 10-years’ imprisonment and who had served for over five years to be released.

Bandaranaike Assassination Commission

On June 28, 1963 the Bandaranaike Assassination Commission was appointed by the Governor-General William Gopallawa, MBE, under the provisions of the Commissions of Enquiry Act to probe on the political aspects of the assassination and to report on ten specific terms of reference.

The Commission, which acted as a judicial tribunal and could exercise judicial power, was chaired by Justice TS Fernando with two foreign judges, viz. Justice Adel Younis, Judge of the Court of Cassation of the UAR, and Justice GC Mills-Odoi, Judge of the Court of Appeal of Ghana.

Services of the Crown lawyers - AC Alles, Solicitor-General and Crown counsel, RS Wanasundera and RI Obeysekera were sought in aiding the Commission to identify persons whose conduct required examination vis-à-vis the terms of reference appearing in the warrant.

Justice Alles later published The Assassination of a Prime Minister in Vol. III (Colombo, 1979/New York, Vantage Press, Inc., 1986) of his Famous Criminal Cases of Sri Lanka series.

Notices were issued by the Commission on the following persons: (1) W. Dahanayake, Prime Minister of Ceylon from September 26, 1959 to March 19, 1960. (2)Lionel Goonetilleke, former assistant superintendent of Police, CID. (3) Ossie Corea, businessman.

(4) FR (Dickie) de Zoysa, landed proprietor and businessman. (5) Mrs. Vimala Wijewardene, former Cabinet Minister. (6) Sidney de Zoysa, former deputy Inspector-General of Police.

The findings of the Commission in Sessional Paper III of 1965, published on April 30, 1964 made an adverse report only in the case of Ms. VimalaWijewardene. Ms. Wijewardene had been dismissed from the position of Minister of Local Government and Housing by Prime Minister Dr. W. Dahanayake on October 20, 1959. She was arrested by the Police on November 19, 1959 as being suspected of complicity in the assassination and was included in the list as the 6th accused when plaint was filed in the Magistrate’s Court on November 26,1959.

It is arguable if the evidence which the Commission accepted had been placed at the non-summary inquiry which ended its sittings on July 15, 1960 Vimala Wijewardene might have been indicted as an accused at the trial. It should be noted almost four months prior to the conclusion of the non-summary inquiry, on March 19, 1960 Dudley Senanayake won the general elections and became Prime Minister for the third time.

September 26

September 26, is also significant in that in 1947, the swearing-in of the DS Senanayake’s famous 14-member Cabinet, of which SWRD Bandaranaike was a Minister and leader of the House, took place on that day.

The day is also significant in that former Fisheries Minister in the JR Jayewardene Government, S de S Jayasinghe, OBE, JP, brother of the feared Aratchirala who was a great friend of Ossie Corea, suddenly died in 1977.

In 1988, on this day, gunmen in Kuliyapitiya at the height of the JVP crisis assassinated Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Minister Lionel Jayatillake. Incidentally, the man Ossie Corea died at the Co-operative Hospital on October 17, 1976 after entering hospital precisely three weeks earlier on September 26.

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(The writer is the author of dOSSIEr COREA: A Portfolio on Crime, short-listed by the Gratiaen Committee, 1998)

Concluded