• Cabinet appoints comm. headed by rtd. Judge 

A three-member committee headed by retired Supreme Court (SC) Judge, Justice Anil Gooneratne has been appointed to look into the execution of Edward Henry Pedris in 1915 based on a decision given by a court martial during the British colonial rule, and related matters.

The Department of Government Information stated that Pedris, then 27-years-old, was brought before a court martial on charges of rioting and treason against the Government by the colonial administration, convicted of treason, and executed on 7 July 1915, without any appeal hearing. The Department added that his remains have been cremated at an undisclosed location following the procedure prescribed for the cremation of a convicted criminal under martial law.

“His execution was later identified as the result of a plan carried out by the senior officers who administered the country at the time. The proposal presented by President and Defence Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to appoint a three-member committee chaired by Justice Gooneratne to study the relevant matters and submit a report with recommendations to bring Pedris justice was approved by the Cabinet,” the Department added.

Pedris was a Ceylonese militia officer and a socialite, who was executed for alleged treason under martial law during the 1915 Sinhalese-Muslim riots. Convicted in a three-day field general court martial under the terms of the Army Act, bypassing the local legal system, his execution was viewed as unjust by the local population. It is said that his body was to be buried in an unmarked grave, in keeping with the military tradition of the burial of a traitor, against the wishes of his family. However, his father, D.D. Pedris is said to have had people spy on the transport and burial of the body. In 1987, Pedris’s suspected grave was unearthed, and the remains were verified as his and reburied. His tomb can currently be seen at the General Cemetery in Borella.