The Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sampath Vidanapathiranage and five others today pleaded not guilty before the Colombo High Court to the killing of British tourist Khuram Sheikh Zaman and sexually assaulting his partner Victoria Alexandrovna at a Tangalle holiday resort, and were released on the previous bail granted by the Tangalle Magistrate Court.

The Court Mudaliyar read over seventeen charges indicting the suspects. Judge Ms Wickramasinghe fixed the trial for December 2.

The suspects were sternly warned to abide by the bail conditions and not to interfere with the 16 witnesses. The case that was heard in Tangalle was transferred to Colombo on the instructions of the Attorney General.

In an earlier identification parade held in the Tangalle Magistrate’s Court, the witnesses lined up identified the suspects including the Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman (UPFA) Sampath Vidanapathirana as involved in the killing of 32-year-old Khuram Shaikh Zaman.

However, Victoria Alexandrovna who was sexually assaulted and injured during the incident failed to identify any of the suspects.

The others suspects who were  identified at the parade  were the PS Chairman’s private secretary Mohottige Saman, Nalagama Praveen Chaturanga, Saman Deshapriya and Obada Arachchige Lahiru Kelum, the  driver Weerakoon Piyadasa Ratnayake and a field officer of the National Housing Development Authority.

Khuram, a Red Cross physical rehabilitation manager working in the war-torn Gaza Strip, was brutally murdered while mediating a quarrel between locals, some of whom were heavily intoxicated. He died as a result of a deep stab wound. Khuram’s body was flown to Britain for a family funeral.

State Counsel Thusith Mudalige prosecuted and President’s Counsel Kalinga Indatissa defended the suspects.(T. Farook Thajudeen)

Source: Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)