COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan court sentenced 12 men to death on Wednesday for the 2022 mob killing of a lawmaker during protests that toppled the president of the South Asian nation.
Lawmaker Amarakeerthi Athukorala, 57, was lynched after he had opened fire on people blocking his car in the town of Nittambuwa, outside the capital Colombo, investigators told the court. Athukorala was overwhelmed by a mob and tried to take refuge in a building, but was surrounded by about 5,000 people, some of whom carried out the lynching.
Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2026