A Sri Lankan court sentenced five people to death,...

A Sri Lankan court sentenced five people to death, including two police officers, for their role in a massacre at a detention camp housing suspected Tamil Tiger rebels and former child soldiers.
Less than half of the 40 inmates of the Bindunuwewa camp 140 miles east of Colombo survived after a machete-wielding mob rampaged through the rehabilitation camp in October 2000.
The sentences for the massacre, which sparked the island's worst ethnic riots in 18 years, were automatically commuted to life imprisonment as Sri Lanka has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 1976.
Local media said the 94-page court judgment condemned police officers for complicity in the attack. "The police officers who were in uniform and armed could have at least prevented or controlled the situation. By not doing so they had aided and abetted the crime," the local Daily Mirror reported.
Out of the 18 who faced trial over the massacre, 13 had been discharged because of lack of evidence and another 23 indicted were released before going to trial.