Similar Maithripala Sirisena , Supreme Court of Sri Lanka , Murder | ||
Royal Park Murder refers to the high-profile murder of a young girl at the Royal Park luxury apartment complex in Rajagiriya Colombo, Sri Lanka on June 30, 2005. This murder case gained a lot of media attention in Sri Lanka at a time a war was going on in the country resulting in many deaths.
Contents
12 year sentence turned to death penalty on royal park murder
Background
Ivon Johanson was a 19-year-old girl who was on holiday in Sri Lanka. At the time, she was studying fashion design in the USA. Her father, Roger Johanson is a Swedish national and mother is Sri Lankan. She has a sister Caroline Johanson. They lived at the Royal Park apartments in Rajagiriya, a Colombo suburb.
Ivon had a relationship with Jude Sharmantha Jayamaha. By the time of her death, her sister Caroline has started an affair with Shamantha. Ivon had objected to the affair stating Shamantha's use of alcohol and drugs.
Murder
On 30, June 2005 both Ivon and Caroline had left their apartment for a party organized by some of their friends. They had picked up Shamantha from his home where he lived with his sister. They had gone to several clubs and Shamantha had consumed alcohol at some of the clubs. At the "Blue Elephant" club Shamantha and Caroline had got into an argument over another boy waving at Caroline. Ivon then intervened on Carolines side.
Then both Caroline and Shamantha had left for Caroline's apartment in a cab and arrived there at around 2.00 am. After spending 20 minutes there Shamantha had left Caroline and waited outside the apartment on the 23rd floor for Ivon to arrive. When Ivon arrived at around 2.45 am an argument ensued leading to a scuffle between the two. Finally Shamantha had killed Ivon by bashing her head. Shamantha called his friend Mohommed Rilvan at 3.03 am to come and pick him up and when he finally came Shamantha was in his boxer shorts with his trousers draped over his arm but did not question about it.
The next morning a domestic maid found Ivon's body lying in a pool of blood on the staircase in the 19th floor and alerted the manager. Later police found Ivon's handbag and other items scattered along the stairs.
Trial and Conviction
Shamantha Jude Jayamaha was found guilty of murder on 11 July 2012.
On 9 June 2014 the Supreme Court approved the death Sentence.
In Popular Culture
A popular Sinhalese song "Nihanda gamane" (නිහඬ ගමනේ) sung by singer Bachi Susan and Shanika Madhumali is based on this incident.
Pardon
In November 2019, outgoing Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena pardoned Jayamaha. Sirisena claimed Jayamaha's crime had been "an incident of impatience". This was met with "outrage" from people and drew criticism from Caroline Jonsson as well.