9 suspects in custody after email message of collective rape of Mirissa foreign lady -- Tourist programmes in confusion

9 suspects in custody after email message of collective rape of Mirissa foreign lady -- Tourist programmes in confusion

As a result of investigations into the collective rape case of a European foreign girl at Mirissa coastal belt moving at snail's pace at present, Sri Lanka faces yet another risk of being subjected to humiliation. By now even tourist operations taking place in Mirissa and the region around has gone into a mess. This incident has occured on the Mirissa coastal strip during dawn on the 8th of April.

A group of some fair-skinned young men from the Netherlands and Britain had been in the company of a fair-skinned girl had been walking along. On that occasion 9 Sri Lankan youth were closeby had attacked the 9 boys and had dragged the girl concerned to a nearby location and had collectively raped her after which they had beat a retreat. According to the complaint lodged with Weligama police station in connection with this incident, investigations have been carried out and 6 suspects were taken into custody on the 13th of the month of April and were produced in Matara Magistrate Court and remanded till the 19th. Another 3 suspects were apprehended on April 17th and were expected to be produced before an identification parade, it was reported. Whatever it is, during the period of inquiries the victims who underwent this ordeal had set off for their countries as scheduled earlier and therefore it had not been possible to hold the identification parade. Minister of Tourism, Mr. John Amaratunga has mentioned that the government is prepared to foot all expenditure involved in getting down all those foreigners to Sri Lanka. He has also added that the identification parade would be conducted on next 26th in court and that if the foreigners concerned are to come here and provide the necessary support in this respect the relevant investigations would be even more strengthened. He has further mentioned that a big blow was received on the tourist industry with this incident and that it is hoped to summon ambassadors of countries in which the foreigners concerned came from and ambassadors of all other countries to Colombo on next 25th for the purpose of explaining matters to them.

Further, the Sri Lankan Tourist Development Authority has ordered the hotel which had been in operation in Mirissa to suspend its activities temporarily. It was also revealed that the said hotel had been functioning without a valid license. The complaint related to this incident in fact was received by the police here across email after the foreigners had left the island the day after the incident. In the meantime, Inspector General of Police, Mr. Pujith Jayasundera had stated yesterday (20) that a delay has occured in the instance of conveying the message and in made known about it. Even then, the IGP says that sufficient local evidence is available to be forwarded to courts with relevance to the incident of harassment to the 3 foreigners and that the police were capable of securing CCTV evidence with regard to the said incident and also from a nearby hotel, he had pointed out.