Ten Sri Lankan security personnel, who had served in the elite presidential security division, were today sentenced to four and a half years in jail and fined for attacking a Sinhalese singer couple in 2000.
The High Court in Panadura sentenced nine of the 10 accused to four and half years of rigorous imprisonment while an accused, who is disabled, received a four-and-half-year sentence of simple imprisonment.
The convicts were also ordered to pay rupee 2 million as compensation to the victims.
Rukantha Gunathilake and Chandraleka Perera, both Sinhala pop musicians and singers, had their Colombo suburb home attacked by an unknown group in January 2000.
The group assaulted the couple while forcibly trimming their hair.
All the convicts had served in the presidential security division during the rule of Chandrika Kumaratunga between 1994 and 2005.
The victim couple were regular at the political platform of the main opposition United National Party candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe in the presidential election held in December 1999.
The attack took place just weeks after Kumaratunga was re-elected after defeating Wickremesinghe.
