People will kill you! People hate you! They will kill you: Gotabaya

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary and brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa reportedly turned abusive and used foul language while giving an interview to Frederica Jansz, Editor of Colombo based magazine, The Sunday Leader.

Gotabaya reportedly threatened her: “But I will put you in jail! You shit journalist trying to split this country – trying to show otherwise from true Sinhala Buddhists!! You are helped by the US Ambassador, NGOs and Paikiasothy – they pay you!!!

A TV grab from BBC showing Gotabaya angrily pointing his fingers at the journalist interviewing him

He also told her: “You pig that eats shit!!! You shit shit dirty f…..g journalist!!!”

When Frederica told him, “I hope you can hear yourself Mr. Rajapaksa,” he reportedly shot back, “People will kill you!!! People hate you!!! They will kill you!!!

When Frederica pressed on, and questioned him whether it would be on his directive, Gotabaya told the journalist, “What?? No. Not mine. But they will kill you – you dirty f…..g shit journalist.”

The Sunday Leader has been boldly taking on the Rajapaksa brothers and paid a heavy price for its crusade against the racist regime when its founding editor Lasantha Wikramatunga was assassinated in 2009.

Lasantha had a premonition about his death and had written an editorial a few days before his assassination in which he referred to President Rajapaksa.

He wrote: “In the wake of my death I know you (Rajapaksa) will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry.

"But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life but yours too depends on it.”

Frederica, who took over as Editor after Lasantha’s death, has also received threats to her life, but she has refused to be cowed down and has chosen to fight the corrupt regime.

Her recent story, ‘Gota goes berserk’ just happened as she contacted Gotabaya to find out from him “if he was aware that the management at SriLankan Airlines had taken a decision to change a wide bodied A340 scheduled to fly to Zurich on Friday July 13, to a smaller A330.

The magazine claimed that “the change was to be made so that a SriLankan Airline pilot, who is dating a niece of President Mahinda Rajapaksa could personally fly the aircraft that would carry a ‘puppy dog’ for Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa from Zurich.”

Gotabaya along with his brother Mahinda face serious charges of war crimes and incidents like these help in exposing the true colours of the Rajapaksa brothers to the world. - TWL Bureau

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