Posts misidentify photographer as suicide bomber responsible for ex-Sri Lankan president’s assassination

Published on October 24, 2024 at 09:32
3 min read
By Harshana SILVA, AFP Sri Lanka

More than three decades after Sri Lanka's former president Ranasinghe Premadasa was assassinated by a suicide bomber in May 1993, an old photo of him resurfaced in social media posts alongside a false claim it showed him pictured with his killer. However, the man standing with Premadasa in the image confirmed with AFP he was the former leader's official photographer.

"Babu and Preme, not sure even the son has seen this," read the Sinhala-language caption to a Facebook post shared on October 19, 2024.

"Preme" refers to Ranasinghe Premadasa, who served as Sri Lanka's prime minister from 1978 to 1989, and then as president from 1989 to 1993 (archived links here and here).

He was killed by a Tamil suicide bomber on May 1, 1993 during a May Day rally in the capital Colombo (archived link).

"Babu" refers to Kulaveerasingam Veerakumar, later identified by authorities as the killer and a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatist group (archived link).

"The son" refers to Premadasa's son Sajith Premadasa, the current leader of the opposition in Sri Lanka.

He ran in the presidential election on September 21 but lost to Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake (archived links here and here).

The post included a photo of Premadasa holding a camera while another man standing next to him appears to be tinkering with some of its parts.

A screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on October 22, 2024

The image was shared alongside a similar false claim here and here.

But the photo does not show the suicide bomber who killed Premadasa.

Presidential photographer

A reverse image search on Google found the same photo published on a Facebook page called JSS Photography Academy Studio on March 17, 2020 (archived link).

The post includes two photos; the bottom image corresponds with the picture in the false posts, while the top one shows Sri Lanka's former president Mahinda Rajapaksa pointing a long-lens camera at another man.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the photos published on the Facebook page (right) :

A screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the photos photos published on the Facebook page (right)

AFP contacted the Facebook page for the Colombo-based JSS Photography Academy-Studio, which belongs to Sri Lankan photographer Sudath Silva (archived link).

Silva served as the official photographer for five different presidents in Sri Lanka (archived link).

"I am aware of the false Facebook posts. I joined Mr Premadasa's office as the official photographer in 1984," Sudath Silva told AFP on October 21, 2024.

"It is me in the photograph. Not Babu. The photo was taken at Yala National Park in 1985," he added.

Silva also denied the claims circulating online in a Facebook post (archived link).

Local fact-checking organisation Fact Crescendo debunked a similar claim in 2021 (archived link).

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