Sri Lankan court sentences police officer to 5 years in jail for failing to arrest politician

A court in Sri Lanka's southwestern town of Ratnapura on Monday sentenced a former senior police officer to five years in jail for protecting a politician from arrest over a murder charge.

Lalith Jayasinghe, the former Senior Deputy Inspector General of the Sabaragamuwa Province, was found guilty of influencing an officer in-charge of a local police station not to arrest Premalal Jayasekera, a current minister of state.

Ratnapura High Court on Monday sentenced him to five years in jail.

Jayasekera and three others had been charged for the murder of an opposition party activist during the campaigning for the presidential elections of January 2015.

In July 2020, the Ratnapura High Court found Jayasekera guilty and sentenced him to death. Jayasekera filed an appeal against the sentence and he was freed from all charges and the death sentence by the Appeals Court in March 2022.

He was re-elected to parliament in 2020 and currently serves as a minister of state.