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  • 2021-12-14 (xsd:date)
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  • Image has circulated in reports about Sri Lankan PM representing former PM as young lawyer (en)
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  • A photo of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in his youth has been shared repeatedly in Facebook posts that claim it shows him working as a lawyer for a Marxist opposition party that led uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s. The claim is misleading; the image has circulated in news reports about Rajapaksa representing the late D.M. Jayaratne, a politician from the socialist Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), who became Sri Lanka's prime minister in 2010. Jayaratne's son and his former media secretary also told AFP the image shows Rajapaksa representing Jayaratne. The photo of a young Rajapaksa was shared in a Facebook post on November 21. It claims the image shows him representing the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The party led youth uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s that were violently suppressed by the then-ruling United National Party. The Sinhala-language text reads: Today, the JVP-ers are spewing hate against the lawyer who helped them voice their grievances before the human rights commission and appeared pro bono for their cases and not against the murderer who killed their own in Batalanda, nor the son of the assassin who burned them alive in pyres made from tyres. Suspected anti-government radicals were allegedly tortured and killed in detention centres, such as the one in the western town of Batalanda. Screenshot of the Facebook post captured on December 1, 2021 The same photo circulated alongside a similar claim in Facebook posts here , here and here . However, the claim is misleading. A reverse image search found the photo of Rajapaksa in this article published in Sri Lanka's state-run newspaper Daily News on November 18, 2011. The photo's caption reads: D.M. Jayaratne now Prime Minister at the Embilipitiya Magistrate's Court having sustained injuries at Suriyawewa during the 1994 Southern Provincial Council election. President Mahinda Rajapaksa appeared for him in court. Screenshot of the Daily News November 18, 2011 edition, captured on December 1, 2021 ( Lakna PARANAMANNA) D.M. Jayaratne was a senior member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Rajapaksa was an SLFP party member for five decades before he quit in November 2018 to join the new Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party (SLPP). The SLPP was formed by Rajapaksa's supporters after his election defeat in 2015. Jayaratne's former media secretary Sisira Wijesinghe told AFP the image was taken between 1994 and 1995 by a regional correspondent. He said: [Jayaratne] had sustained injuries from a shooting incident during the local council election. The image shows a day when the current prime minister's niece Nirupama Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa himself arrived at the court on a day the case was taken up. Jayaratne's son Anuradha Jayaratne -- who became Sri Lanka's State Minister of Irrigation Development in 2020 -- also told AFP the image shows Rajapaksa when he represented his late father. He said: This image is from around 1994 I believe when the current prime minister -- in his capacity as a lawyer -- supported my late father on an election-related court case during the Southern provincial elections. A JVP spokesperson told AFP Rajapaksa has never represented the party. As a young lawyer, he spoke about the human rights violations occurring in Sri Lanka in the name of quelling uprisings during the '80s. But he has not represented a JVP-er with regard to the crimes in that era, the spokesperson said. The JVP has been the subject of multiple misleading claims. AFP previously debunked posts that claimed JVP members were seen cosying up to the Rajapaksas after criticising them. (en)
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