Sri Lanka sentences two to hang for tsunami murder

COLOMBO, Dec 14 (Reuters) Two Sri Lankans accused of grabbing a gold chain from a woman caught in the 2004 tsunami before letting her be swept to her death have been sentenced to death for her murder, a court official said today.

The men were caught on camera in December 2004 as they pushed the woman back into floodwaters during the island's worst natural disaster in a crime that shocked the nation.

''Both accused have been given the death sentence by hanging,'' said WST De Silva, High Court registrar in the southern port town of Galle. The sentence was pronounced yesterday.

The video, widely shown in Sri Lanka after the disaster, shows Mapalagamage Ruwan and Ajith Kumara standing on the roof of the bus station in Galle, where hundreds drowned, as flood waters swept through.

They appear to pull 23-year-old Dineti Deshika from the water, grab a golden necklace and then let her fall back into the raging torrent. Her body was found when the waters receded.

The theft was one of the highest-profile crimes reported during the tsunami, which killed some 35,000 people in Sri Lanka and almost 230,000 around the Indian Ocean.

However, while the death penalty was reinstated in Sri Lanka in 2004 after the murder of a high court judge, it has been dormant since 1976 and there was no indication the punishment would actually be carried out.

Dozens of convicted murderers, drug smugglers and rapists are on death row, where they have been serving life prison terms.

REUTERS BDP HT1508