Thilanga Sumathipala handed jail sentence

Thilanga Sumathipala, the former chairman of Sri Lanka Cricket, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment for breaking Sri Lanka's immigration laws. He was granted bail on a cash bond of 10,000 rupees (100 US$).

Sumathipala was charged with taking Dhammika Amarasinghe, a Sri Lankan national, to England on forged travel documents to watch the 1999 World Cup, when Sumathipala was heading Sri Lanka Cricket. Amarasinghe was shot dead in a Colombo courtroom, where he was being prosecuted for a series of contract killings and attempted assassinations, in January 2004.

He was also fined 50,000 rupees (450 US$) by Colombo additional magistrate Ajith Anavaratne who read out the sentence for the case, which began in 2003. Sumathipala's lawyers said he would appeal the sentence.