SRI LANKAN presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been served notice of two civil lawsuits against him relating to torture and assassination.

Acting on behalf of the torture victim, lawyers and activists from rights organisation the International Truth & Justice Project (ITJP) handed the notice to Mr Rajapaksa in a US supermarket car park after hiring private investigators to track him down.

The former Sri Lankan defence secretary is a US-Sri Lanka joint citizen.

Roy Samathanam, a Canadian national who was detained in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo in September 2007, says the terrorism investigation division of the Sri Lankan police — for which Mr Rajapaksa was ultimately responsible — tortured him before forcing him to sign a false confession.

Mr Samathanam was finally released in 2010 on a plea deal and payment of a fine.

In 2016 the UN human rights committee ordered Sri Lanka to prosecute those responsible and provide adequate compensation to Mr Samathanam, which it has failed to do. He filed the case against Mr Rajapaksa in California this weekend.  

The other suit against Mr Rajapaksa relates to the 2009 assassination of the editor of the Sri Lankan newspaper the Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickremetunga.

Mr Wickremetunga’s daughter Ahimsa told US media that her father once warned her that he would be murdered to prevent him testifying in a case against Mr Rajapaksa.

“Mr Rajapaksa has to give up his US citizenship to be able to stand in presidential elections, so this was probably the last chance for a long time to begin to hold him accountable,” said ITJP’s executive director Yasmin Sooka.

“We hope other survivors of torture will join the suit and make this a class action.”