Sri Lanka exhumes body of journalist who predicted his own murder

In January of 2009, Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge was murdered while driving to work.

Three days later, Wickrematunge's newspaper, The Sunday Leader, published his obituary. It was written by Wickrematunge before his death. In it, he predicted that he would be murdered by the government. He also said that the inquiry into his death would go nowhere.

"In the course of the last few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print institutions have been burned, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories, and now especially the last," he wrote.

As Wickrematunge predicted in his editorial, the investigation into his death went nowhere. That changed, however, on Tuesday, when the government — under new leadership — exhumed his body. The move was part of a new investigation into his murder.

"I feel gratitude," Wickrematunge's widow, Sonali Samarasinghe, tells As it Happens host Carol Off. "I know that sounds quite strange that I would feel grateful. But soon, I hope our democracy is restored and our institutions that have been ravaged are rebuilt."

At the time of Wickrematunge's murder, there was a crackdown on journalists under the rule of then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The government denied claims that it was involved in the slain journalist's death.

Ever since the paper was founded, Wickrematunge was one of the most tried and most prominent voices against the establishment. He was a constant irritant to the government- Sonali Samarasinghe, widow of murdered journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge

Police reports at the time of Wickrematunge's murder say he was shot. But, others have said his body had no bullet wounds.

"It was concluded, by many of us, that he was not shot. However, the fact that he was shot was propagated — in my view — by the government in order to botch the investigation," says Samarasinghe.    

"Ever since the paper was founded, Wickrematunge was one of the most tried and most prominent voices against the establishment. He was a constant irritant to the government … He also frequently blamed the government and the Tamil Tigers for killing citizens. He was a pacifist. It burdened him that there was such a human cost to the war. So, he would write this every single day."

Samarasinghe says she and her husband often spoke about the possibility that he would be killed for his work. She tried to stop him from going to work on the day that he was murdered.

"I told him don't leave. Or, if you're leaving, let me come with you. He was just so adamant to drive off. Because it was a Thursday and that's when he writes his very popular political column … I hung on to his car, to the window, and he just drove off. I think about that very often."

After Wickrematunge was murdered, Samarasinghe was harassed and received death threats. She was forced to leave the country. She believes this new investigation is a "genuine" one. However, she doesn't know if she'll ever see someone standing trial for her husband's murder.

"I hope so. But, I don't know that. In my heart, I don't have a lust for revenge. What I do have is a real yearning to know the truth … If I know the truth, I'll be able to move on."

For more on this story, listen to our full interview with Lasantha Wickrematunge.