COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Sri Lankan police said Tuesday that they have arrested three navy personnel over the 2006 assassination of an ethnic Tamil lawmaker, a killing that had been blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels.

The three men are suspected in the assassination of Nadaraja Raviraj, who was shot dead in his car during the country’s long civil war, police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said.

It’s the first time Sri Lanka has arrested members of its security forces since new President Maithripala Sirisena pledged accountability for alleged human rights violations committed during the war, which ended in 2009.

Raviraj was outspoken on greater self-rule for minority ethnic Tamils and had explained the Tamil perspective of the conflict in Sinhala, the language of the majority.