{"id":62940,"date":"2017-02-01T14:14:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-01T21:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=62940"},"modified":"2017-02-01T14:14:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T21:14:51","slug":"sri-lanka-arrest-astrologer-who-predicted-president-sirisenas-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/02\/01\/sri-lanka-arrest-astrologer-who-predicted-president-sirisenas-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka arrest astrologer who predicted President Sirisena&#8217;s death"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel-pane pane-node-title pane-first pos-0\">\n<div class=\"pane-content\">\n<h2 id=\"page-title\" class=\"title\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><em>Courtesy South China Morning Post<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"panel-separator\">\u00a0Astrologer is a former navy sailor convicted of attempting to assassinate India\u2019s then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1987<\/div>\n<div class=\"panel-separator\">\n<p class=\"v2-processed\">An astrologer who made several predictions that Sri Lanka\u2019s President Maithripala Sirisena would die has been arrested, police said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<div id=\"mrec-holder22\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"v2-processed\">Most Sri Lankans follow astrologers\u2019 advice, and the suspect, Vijitha Rohana Wijemuni, is a former navy sailor convicted of attempting to assassinate India\u2019s then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1987.<\/p>\n<p class=\"v2-processed\">The Police Media Division said Wijemuni was arrested Tuesday evening on the charges of making false predictions and comments that could mislead the public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"v2-processed\">Wijemuni posted several videos on Facebook predicting Sirisena would die of illness or accident before January 27. His predictions raised concerns of top government officials, and Media Ministry Secretary Nimal Bopage asked police in December to investigate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"v2-processed\"><strong>Watch: the moment Wijemuni attacks Rajiv Gandhi with rifle butt<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"methode-html-wrapper v2-processed no-float\">\n<div class=\"fluid-width-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"fitvid0\" class=\"lazyload-processed loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6mg97S2dNOY\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-original=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6mg97S2dNOY\" data-ignore=\"true\" data-spm-act-id=\"0.0.0.i4.oXeWzF\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"v2-processed\">In a letter sent to the police chief, Bopage said he suspected a possible coup and assassination attempt were behind Wijemuni\u2019s sustained campaign on the internet during the last few months. He is the only person who has been investigated, though the government did not say if he was thought to have acted alone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"v2-processed\">Wijemuni served two and a half years in prison for attacking Gandhi with his rifle as the Indian premier inspected a naval guard of honour in Colombo. After being released from jail, Wijemuni turned to politics and contested for parliamentary elections in 2000, before becoming an astrologer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"v2-processed\">Most Sri Lankans follow astrology to identify auspicious times for occasions such as marriage, building houses and signing important documents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy South China Morning Post \u00a0Astrologer is a former navy sailor convicted of attempting to assassinate India\u2019s then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1987 An astrologer who made several predictions that Sri Lanka\u2019s President Maithripala Sirisena would die has been arrested, police said Wednesday. Most Sri Lankans follow astrologers\u2019 advice, and the suspect, Vijitha Rohana Wijemuni, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}