A Prison Official yesterday opened fire in the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court premises when a Ukrainian national who had been convicted of committing the murder of an eight-year-old Chinese child made an aborted attempt to escape from prison custody.
The shooting caused no harm to the foreign prisoner, but a Prison official was wounded and taken to hospital. Mazur Yevgen was brought before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court in connection with another case by Prison authorities.
The Supreme Court had affirmed the conviction and death sentence imposed against the Ukrainian national for committing the murder of an eight-year-old Chinese child and the baby sitter at Nawala on February 23,2010.
However, the Supreme Court had acquitted the Ukrainian’s wife of all charges levelled against her including the murder of two individuals. On June 16, 2014, Mazur Yevgen and his wife Yana Berezhna were found guilty of murdering an eight-year-old Chinese child and the baby sitter by the High Court Trial-at-Bar Bench.