COLOMBO: Sri Lankan investigators arrested a former navy chief on Monday over the abduction and disappearance of a suspect 15 years ago, a police officer said.

Admiral Nishantha Ulugetenne was taken into custody over the disappearance in 2010, when he headed the Directorate of Naval Intelligence, said a detective who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to media.

Ulugetenne, who also served as Sri Lanka`s ambassador to Cuba following his retirement from the navy in December 2022, was remanded in custody until Wednesday.

`We recorded a statement from him regarding the disappearance of a 48-year-old man in 2010 and he was later arrested,` he said. Ulugetenne`s arrest comes after an investigation into another former navy chief, Wasantha Karannagoda, which drew attention to extrajudicial killings during Sri L anka`s 37-year Tamil separatist war.

The killings have been raised at consecutive UN Human Rights Council meetings, which have called for independent investigations into atrocities committed during the separatist conflict.-AFP