View source for Jeyaraj Fernandopulle

{{Short description|Sri Lankan politician (1953–2008)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2020}}
{{more citations needed|date=April 2016}}
{{Infobox MP
| honorific-prefix       = [[The Honourable|Hon.]] 
| name                     = Jeyaraj Fernandopulle
| honorific-suffix       =
| image                    = File:Hon Jeyaraj Fernandopulle.jpg
| imagesize              =  180
| office1                   = [[Ministry of Highways, Ports & Shipping|Minister of Highways and Road Development]]
| president1             = [[Mahinda Rajapaksa]]
| primeminister1      = [[Ratnasiri Wickremanayake]]
| term_start1            = 23 November 2005
| term_end1             = 6 April 2008
| predecessor1        = 
| successor1            = 
| office2                   = Minister of Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs
| president2             = Mahinda Rajapaksa <br> [[Chandrika Kumaratunga]]
| primeminister2      = Ratnasiri Wickremanayake <br> Mahinda Rajapaksa
| term_start2            = 10 April 2004
| term_end2             =  28 January 2007
| predecessor2        = 
| successor2            = 
| office3                   = [[Ministry of Civil Aviation (Sri Lanka)|Minister of Civil Aviation and Airports Development]]
| president3             = Chandrika Kumaratunga
| primeminister3      = Ratnasiri Wickremanayake
| term_start3            = 19 October 2000
| term_end3             =  2001
| predecessor3        = 
| successor3            = 
| office4                   = [[Chief Government Whip (Sri Lanka)|Chief Government Whip]]
| term_start4            = 3 May 2004 
| term_end4             = 6 April 2008
| predecessor4        = [[Mahinda Samarasinghe]]
| successor4            = [[Dinesh Gunawardena]]
| constituency_MP5 = [[Gampaha Electoral District|Gampaha District]]
| parliament5           = Sri Lankan
| majority5             = 90,307 Preferential Votes 
| term_start5            = 9 March 1989
| term_end5             = 6 April 2008
| predecessor5        = 
| successor5            = [[Dulip Wijeysekara]]
| birth_date              =  {{Birth date|1953|1|11|df=y}}
| birth_place            = Welihena, [[Dominion of Ceylon]]
| death_date            = {{death date and age|2008|04|06|1953|01|11|df=y}} 
| death_place          = [[Weliveriya]], [[Sri Lanka]]
| death_cause          = [[2008 Weliveriya bombing|Assassination]]
| nationality              =  [[Sri Lanka]]n
| party                      =  [[Sri Lanka Freedom Party]] 
| occupation             = [[Politician]]
| otherparty              = [[United People's Freedom Alliance]] <br> [[People's Alliance (Sri Lanka)|People's Alliance]]
| spouse                   =  [[Sudarshani Fernandopulle]]
| partner                   = 
| relations                = 
| children                 = Samurdhi and Bhanuka 
| residence              =
| alma_mater          =
| profession             =  [[Lawyer]]
| rank                      = 
| branch                  = 
| unit                        = 
| allegiance             = 
| serviceyears         =           
| signature              =
| website                 =
| footnotes              =
}}

'''Jeyaraj Fernandopulle''' ({{langx|si|ජෙයරාජ් ප්‍රනාන්දුපුල්ලේ}}, {{langx|ta|ஜெயராஜ் பெர்னான்டோபுள்ளே}}, 11 January 1953 &ndash; 6 April 2008) was a [[Sri Lanka]]n politician who served as a cabinet Minister and a [[Member of Parliament]] in [[Sri Lanka]]. He was a [[Roman Catholic]] and hailed from a minority ethnic group [[Colombo Chetties]].

==Early life==
Fernandopulle was born on the 11 January 1953 in Welihena, Kochchikade (about 12&nbsp;km north of  [[Negombo]]).

He has done the preliminary education (up to grade 1) at ''Ave Maria Convent'', [[Negombo]], then entered ''[[Maris Stella College]]'', Negombo for primary and secondary education. In 1972 Fernandopulle became a Maths and Science teacher after leaving the school, but left teaching to become a lawyer in 1974. He passed out from the [[Sri Lanka Law College]] in 1977 as an Attorney-at-law. One of his contemporaries at the Law College was President [[Mahinda Rajapakse]] who was an [[Member of Parliament|MP]] at that time.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080413231648/http://www.island.lk/2008/04/11/news2.html  President’s farewell to ‘Dear friend’]</ref><ref name="ref1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/04/11/news02.asp |title=Jeyaraj: An emotional final journey |access-date=2008-04-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414075201/http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/04/11/news02.asp |archive-date=2008-04-14 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Since December 1977 he started practicing as a lawyer mainly in the Magistrates Court and High Court of Negombo and in other criminal courts island wide.

==Political career==
Fernandopulle began his political career in 1970 as an election agent for a [[Sri Lanka Freedom Party]] candidate. In 1984 he was appointed as the chief organizer by the SLFP in the Katana electorate, [[Western Province, Sri Lanka|Western Province]] in Sri Lanka. From there onwards he has been elected to the parliament five consecutive times in the years 1989, 1994, 2000, 2001 and 2004. Fernandopulle held several Ministerial posts since 1994, which were the Minister of Catholic Affairs, the Minister of Ethnic Concession and National Unity, the Minister of Air Port and Aviation, and the Minister of Road Development. In 2005 he was appointed Minister of Highways & Road Development, served as the chief government whip of the parliament and was a close associate of the President.

==Controversies==
The Supreme Court cases Nos. 66/95 and 67/95 was filed against Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle(''the then Deputy Minister of Planning, Ethnic Affairs and National Integration'') as the first respondent by the members of the United Airport Taxi Services Society Ltd, for engaging armed thugs and preventing the petitioners from entering the airport in pursuance of their occupation. The two cases were argued and decided on 30.11.1995 in favour of the two petitioner societies. The judgement written by justice Wijetunga indicated, inter alia, that '''since the violation resulted from the first respondent's instigation''', he(Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle) was directed to pay Rs. 50,000 as costs: Rs 25,000 to the petitioner society in Application No. 66/95 and Rs 25,000 to the petitioner society in Application No. 67/95.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110716210239/http://www.lawnet.lk/docs/case_law/slr/HTML/1996SLR1V22.htm]

Jeyaraj Fernandopulle strongly justified the forced eviction of Tamils from Colombo lodges in June 2007. Addressing the media the minister said there was no need for the Prime Minister to express regret over the move and insisted that all 300 Tamils were sent to Vavuniya after getting their 'verbal consent' in Colombo and subsequently written consent in Vavuniya [http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2007/6/15873_space.html][http://www.nation.lk/2007/06/17/politics1.htm]

In August 2007 he launched a scathing attack against United Nation's Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes terming him as a "terrorist who takes bribes from the LTTE." When his remarks were condemned by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon he declared that  "I don’t give a damn about what this UN boss has to tell me or Sri Lanka. He can say whatever he wants, but I will still go by what I said and that is, John Homes is a terrorist who takes bribes from the LTTE." [http://www.nation.lk/2007/08/19/news6.htm]

==Death==
{{Main|2008 Weliveriya bombing}}
He was killed on 6 April 2008 along with 14 others<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7332952.stm Blast 'kills Sri Lankan minister'], BBC</ref> by an alleged [[suicide bomber]], who exploded himself at the start of a [[marathon race]] which was part of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebration in [[Weliveriya]] town.<ref>[http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/06/srilanka.bomb/index.html Sri Lankan MP among 10 killed in blast], CNN</ref> Sri Lanka's national athletics coach [[Lakshman de Alwis]] and former Olympics runner [[Kuruppu Karunaratne|K.A. Karunaratne]] were also killed in the bombing which wounded 90 others.<ref>[http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/06/srilanka.bomb/index.html Suicide blast kills Sri Lankan minister], CNN</ref><ref>[http://lankadissent.com/allnews/2008_04_06_04_news.htm Jeryaraj killed in Gampaha blast]</ref> He is survived by his wife, Dr. Sudharshani Fernendopulle, daughter Samurdhi and son Bhanuka.<ref name="ref1"/><ref>[http://www.island.lk/2008/04/11/news3.html  Father lived for the people -  Son]</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSCOL31340720080407?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0|title=Suicide blast kills Sri Lanka minister|publisher=Reuters|date=7 April 2008}}</ref>

[[Amnesty International]] and the Government of Sri Lanka accused the LTTE for carrying out the attack.<ref name="BBC">{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2008/04/080409_amnesty_tmvp.shtml|title='Stop' attacks against civilians|date=9 April 2008|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>
The suicide attack was captured in video of a [[Sirasa TV]] news camera.<ref>{{YouTube|Qv50bkb6ua4}}</ref>

==See also==

*[[Notable assassinations of the Sri Lankan Civil War]]
*[[List of attacks attributed to the LTTE]]
*[[Sri Lankan civil war|Sri Lankan Civil War]]
*[[List of members of the Sri Lankan Parliament who died in office]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080225170309/http://www.jeyaraj.org/ Personal Website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080302201452/http://www.srilankafreedomparty.org/ Official Website of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)]
* [http://www.parliament.lk/en/members-of-parliament/directory-of-past-members/viewMember/136 Past MP Profile Page on parliament.lk]

{{Sri Lankan Parliamentary Affairs ministers}}
{{Chief Government Whip (Sri Lanka)}}
{{Members of the 13th Parliament of Sri Lanka}}
{{Members of the 12th Parliament of Sri Lanka}}
{{Members of the 11th Parliament of Sri Lanka}}
{{Members of the 10th Parliament of Sri Lanka}}
{{Members of the 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka}}
{{Members of the Sri Lankan Parliament from Gampaha}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandopulle, Jeyaraj}}
[[Category:1953 births]]
[[Category:2008 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Maris Stella College]]
[[Category:Alumni of Sri Lanka Law College]]
[[Category:Filmed assassinations]]
[[Category:Cabinet ministers of Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Mass murder victims]]
[[Category:Members of the 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Members of the 10th Parliament of Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Members of the 11th Parliament of Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Members of the 12th Parliament of Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Members of the 13th Parliament of Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Sri Lanka Freedom Party politicians]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan Chetties]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan lawyers]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan teachers]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Sri Lankan terrorism victims]]
[[Category:Terrorism deaths in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:United People's Freedom Alliance politicians]]
[[Category:People killed during the Sri Lankan civil war]]
[[Category:Chief Government Whips (Sri Lanka)]]
[[Category:2008 murders in Sri Lanka]]
[[Category:Asian politicians assassinated in the 2000s]]
[[Category:Politicians assassinated in 2008]]
[[Category:Deaths by LTTE suicide bomber]]
[[Category:Politicians assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]]