Sri Lankan minister and former army chief field marshal Sarath Fonseka has been questioned by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in connection with the murder of a journalist, a media report said.
Fonseka, minister of regional development, gave statement Saturday to the CID over five hours over the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga, a former editor of the Sunday Leader.
“I was able to use that opportunity to clear my name. The former ruler was trying to blame me for the assassination,” Fonseka told reporters.
He said the CID quizzed him on the military’s role in Colombo during the war with the LTTE between 2006 and 2009.
He led the army when the government troops crushed the LTTEs 30-year-old separatist campaign in the north and east of the island.
He was the handpicked army commander of the former president Mahinda Rajapakse who is credited for his action to end the LTTEs campaign of violence.
Rajapakse and Fonseka later fell foul of each other and the former army commander challenged the former president in the 2010 presidential election.
He was later jailed by Rajapakse for treason. In the last presidential election, Fonseka backed the incumbent Maithripala
Sirisena against Rajapakse.
Wickrematunga, a fierce critic of the Rajapakse regime, was waylaid and murdered while he was driving to work in January 2009. The blame fell on the government. The current government has re-opened the investigation.
Sarath Fonseka
