Udathalawinna massacre
Victim had twenty five injuries with two being fatal — Witness

Assistant Judicial Medical Officer Sujeewa Illangamage giving evidence before the High Court of Colombo in the Udathalawinna case on Thursday stated that the victim Mohammed Azwar had twenty five injuries on his body and two of them were fatal. About nine bullets had penetrated the body of the deceased, the doctor said.

The case is being heard before a Bench of three High Court Judges comprising Eric Basnayake, Deepali Wijesundera and Sunil Rajapakse.

The former Deputy Minister of Defence Anuruddha Ratwatte, his two sons and twelve others stand charged on 72 counts including murder of ten persons at Udathalawinna on December 5, 2001, the General Election day.

Cross examined by defence counsel R. I. Obeysekera, the witness said that he was appointed in 1998 and that he assumed duties in Kandy as an Assistant Judicial Medical Officer in 2001.

Counsel - What did you do to the clothes of Mohammed Azwar?

Witness - I handed them to a police officer.

Counsel - To which police officer?

Witness - I cannot say who was the police officer. I cannot remember.

Counsel - What did you do to the piece of metal recovered from his body?

Witness - I put it into an envelope and stapled it.

Counsel - You could have sealed it?

Witness - Yes I could. But it wasn’t necessary as the parcel was in my custody.

Counsel - You handed it over to the magistrate?

Witness - No, I handed it to an officer of the court.

Counsel - On whom did you perform the second post mortem?

Witness - It was of Zafar Ahamed. I handed the clothes in this case also to the same police officer. The items recovered from his body were also put into an envelope and stapled.

Counsel Anil Silva commenced cross examination of the witness at this stage.

Counsel - Who prepared notes of the post mortems which were carried out by Dr. Asoka Seneviratne who gave evidence earlier?

Witness - I was his assistant and I prepared notes.

Counsel - Can you specifically say what type of a gun was used to cause these injuries?

Witness - Yes. I can say by looking at the nature of the wound, the way the bullet entered and moved out of the body. These injuries seem to have been caused by a high velocity gun.

Counsel - There are many kinds of guns. Can you specifically say the size of the bullet that has caused these injuries.

Witness - I cannot.

Counsel - Can you say that these injuries were caused by such a type of a gun, or can you say that the injuries were caused by the type of bullets which were recovered from the body of some other victim?

Witness - No. I cannot.

Further hearing of this case will continue next Tuesday (29).