Sri Lankan activist misidentified in posts about Colombo teen's death
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on May 17, 2023 at 07:13
- 3 min read
- By AFP Sri Lanka
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The two photos were shared on Facebook on May 9, 2023.
The image at the top shows a protester wearing a T-shirt displaying the Sinhalese word "aragalaya", which translates as "struggle".
It refers to a series of protests against former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa that began in April 2022, during which the public demanded his resignation over the island's most painful economic downturn since independence in 1948.
"Then -- seen supporting the racist diaspora," reads the text next to the image.
The bottom image shows another man who appears to have been detained by police. Its caption translates as: "Now -- after being arrested for the murder of a young girl."
The post circulated following local news reports that a suspect had been arrested following the death of a 16-year-old girl in a Colombo suburb.
The same collage was also shared alongside a similar false claim on Facebook here and here and circulated on the messenger app WhatsApp.
Comments from some viewers on the posts indicated they believed the two photos showed the same person.
One wrote: "Most of those who took a leading role in the protests were criminals. They did it to hide their crimes. He is one of them."
Another said: "Who are these idiots who welcomed him? One look at him and I knew he was a criminal."
Sri Lankan police, however, told AFP that the claim in the posts was false.
"The person in the top picture is not the suspect," the spokesperson said on May 14. "The main suspect arrested in relation to this case is Gayan Danushka Sahabandu, seen in the photo wearing a blue shirt. He is currently in custody."
The photo of Sahabandu previously appeared in local news reports here and here about his arrest on May 9 (archived links here and here).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the bottom photo in the misleading collage (left) and the photo that appeared in the Sinhala-language newspaper Lankadeepa (right):
Anti-Rajapaksa protester
A reverse search on Google found the photo of the Sri Lankan activist shared on Facebook on June 27, 2022 by Shalika Rukshan Senadheera (archived link).
Its caption reads: "Put an immediate stop to the unjustified arrest of protesters and state suppression."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the top photo in the misleading collage (left) and Senadheera's Facebook post (right):
Shalika told AFP on May 10 that the photo shows him staging an anti-government protest last year at what became known as the "GotaGoGama (village)".
"I believe this activism has led to me being deliberately targeted in this falsehood that is being circulated," he said.
AFP has previously debunked false posts about another Sri Lankan activist.
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