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Two Lankans get life terms for murder
By Neville de Silva in London
Two more Sri Lankans have been sentenced to life terms for murder, kidnapping and torture that rocked the town of Wembley and its environs, already shocked by violence in the Tamil community. Three others were jailed for a total of 32 years for their part in the murder and attempted murder of two Tamils in April last year.

The spate of killings within the expatriate Tamil community in England and other offences committed by them have prompted Scotland Yard to set up a special squad a few months ago to monitor these activities.

In the case where sentence was announced, Ragularperuma Sachchithananthan, 26, had blasted Suresh Selvarajah with a shotgun when he realised that his intended target, Partheepan Paramalingham was not at home.

Hours earlier Sachchithananthan's gang had bungled a drive-by shooting. Sachchithananthan and his accomplice Nagarasa Sivakumar (33) were sentenced to life for the murder and 12 years for the attempted murder of Paramalingham.

"You were party to a terrifying and quite disgraceful outbreak of violence. This was a cold blooded and premeditated murder," Judge Graham Boal told them at the Old Bailey trial. The sentencing followed the jailing of four other Tamils for killing a Tamil student and setting his body on fire at Kingsbury Park in Northwest London.
The Old Bailey heard how Sachchithananthan and his gang from Ariyalai in the northern Sri Lankan province had a deep hatred of people from Paramalingham's village in Mannar.

"In 2001, a man from Ariyalai was murdered. Partheepan was arrested but not charged and this caused great agitation among the Ariyalai people," Prosecutor John Hilton was quoted by the Harrow Times as saying.

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