Witness retaliation claims in Sri Lanka?

The Sunday Observer reports:

Lt. Commander Krishan Welagedara provided damning evidence to CID sleuths in 2012, when he was able to help the agency to establish that the 11 youths abducted by a suspected navy gang were held in detention at Gun Site at the Trincomalee Naval Base. A Navy Intelligence officer, Welagedara was privy to the information because he had been tasked by his commanding officer in 2009 to determine if innocent people were being held at Gun Site on the pretext that they were terror suspects. His evidence not only helps to establish the boys’ last known location, but also tells a horrific story about how they might have met their end. Now he claims he has faced endless persecution within the Navy for telling the CID his story.

One of the issues raised in the article is whether LCDR Welagedara was subject to a court-martial as retaliation. What is of interest is the punishment he received at that court-martial.

On July 12, 2016 the Navy court martial headed by Judge Advocate General (JAG) Shavindra Fernando pronounced Welagedara guilty on both counts and sentenced him to 36 months forfeiture of seniority, and 12 months forfeiture of seniority and 17 days forfeiture of pay and allowances for the two offences respectively.

This punishment, called "loss of numbers" was an available punishment to officers in a U. S. court-martial until 1999. Should that punishment be made available again? There have been a number of reports in the U.S. of allegedly rampant senior officer misconduct in situations where a loss of seniority might be an appropriate punishment. See e.g., Tom Vanden Brooks, Senior military officials sanctioned for more than 500 cases of serious misconduct. USA Today, 24 October 2017; Juana Summers, Pentagon watchdog: Few senior officers found guilty of misconduct. 8 February 2018.

Here's a link to Fidell & Fidell, Loss of Numbers Was a Punishment, U. S. Naval Institute, 127/8/1 Proceedings 182 (2001).

Another interesting part of the piece is whether the punishment runs consecutively or concurrently.  In the U.S. the sentence is a unitary one--one punishment--regardless of the number of charges of which convicted.  There will some change to that in 2019 with military judge sentencing.