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Ambepitiya murder case: Judgement on July 4
The judgment in the case of the murder of Colombo High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya will be delivered on July 4 after the case was concluded this week by a Trial-at-Bar presided over by High Court Judges, Upali Abeyratne, W.A.T. Ratnayake and I.M. Abeyratne.

In this case M. Niyaz Naufer, H.N.Udaya Kumara, Sampath Thushara Wijewardena Abeywickrama, Sujith Rohana Rupasingha and Sumedha Niroshana have been accused of the murder of Mr. Ambepitiya and his bodyguard IP Upali Ranasinghe.

Seventy three witnesses were listed but only four including the driver of the cab in which the suspected assassins travelled and a waiter at a restaurant were among those who were called to give evidence. Mr. Ambepitiya and his body guard were murdered outside the judges’s residence on November 19, 2004.

On Thursday Solicitor General C.R. de Silva made the written submissions while Attorney-at-Law Kalinga Indatissa made written submissions on behalf of the second and fourth accused Udayakumara and Rupasingha. Written submissions were filed by Tirantha Walaliyadda, PC on Friday in respect of the first accused Naufer.

Mr. Walaliyadda in his submissions said that there was no evidence to suggest that the first accused had entered into an agreement with the other accused to commit the murder. He said since Naufer was charged with conspiracy to murder, the prosecution must prove that the first accused entered into an agreement with the other accused to commit murder.

“There is absolutely no evidence directly or circumstantially that the first accused entered into an agreement with the other accused to commit murder. There is not even a semblance of a prima facie case that he entered into an agreement with the other accused to commit murder”, the submissions said.

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