Sri Lanka's High Court in Colombo passed death sentence Monday for the five accused charged with murdering a high court judge last November.

A three-member special trial-at-bar ruled that Niaz Naufer and his four accomplices in the murder of the Judge Sarath Ambeypitiya were guilty and sentenced them to death.

Ambeypitiya, a Colombo High Court Judge, was shot at as he was alighting his car at his residence for lunch in the plush residential area of Cinnamon Gardens in Colombo on Nov. 19 last year.

Naufer, the first accused, was angered by an earlier ruling by Ambeypitiya against him.

The trial lasted 23 days with 43 witnesses giving evidence in one of the most talked about trils in recent times.

Naufer, a drug baron in the city, had masterminded the killing by hiring assassins.

The ruling said the accused will be hanged at a date and time to be decided by the Sri Lankan president.

Judge Ambepitiya became famous for his October 2002 ruling which sentenced the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabakaran for a 200 year prison sentence.

The Sri Lankan government has imposed death penalty for rape, murder and narcotics to counter organized crime with immediate effect, one day after the assassination of Ambepitiya.

Source: Xinhua