Colombo, December 14:

A Sri Lankan court has sentenced two men to die for murdering a woman, who survived the first waves of the 2004 tsunami but was pushed back into the sea by the duo after snatching her gold chain, the chief police investigator said today.

After yanking her necklace, the two let Dineti Deshika, 35, fall back into the torrent on December 26, 2004.

The incident in the southern port city of Galle got wide publicity and condemnation in Sri Lanka, where the tsunami killed at least 35,000 people and affected 1 million. “The judge found both of them guilty of murder and sentenced them to death,” said police office Jayalath Ballagale from Galle.

Chief police investigator Sarath Mendis said Galle High Court judge Chandrasena Rajapakse in his 160-page judgment held the two responsible for murder and other criminal acts.

“I was present in the court and I felt very happy that finally justice has been done,” Mendis said today about the previous day’s court order.

The victim, Deshika, who never married, looked after her sister-in-law’s two orphaned children. Her sister-in-law died during childbirth and her brother, the father, committed suicide.

The robbery and murder became notorious after Colombo’s Daily Mirror newspaper splashed video stills of two men robbing the woman after the first wave struck.

The images showed the men yanking the gold chain from her neck and then fighting each other for the jewellery. Deshika was carried away into the sea.

After the publication of the images, police tracked down Ruwan Mapalagamage and Ajith Kumara on January 13, 2005. They were initially charged with theft, which was later upgraded to murder.

Though the pair has been sentenced to death, Sri Lanka has not executed anyone in three decades, despite lifting a 1976 moratorium on the death penalty in December 2004.

Galle High Court judge Rajapakse sentenced Mapalagamage to two years imprisonment, fined him $250 for gold theft and sentenced him to death for murder. Kumara was acquitted of theft but sentenced for murder. The judgment was based on the testimony of witnesses and a video taken by a Sri Lankan cameraman based in Galle. The still pictures that appeared in the Daily Mirror were from his footage.