Sri Lanka
Editor of Tamil newspaper releasedPosted May 5 2009
A court in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, ordered the release of a Sri Lankan journalist accused of having links with Tamil Tiger rebels due to lack of evidence, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reports. Editor of the Tamil daily Sudar Oli, N. Vithyatharan, had been detained by police since Feb. 26.
The Colombo Criminal Division (CCD), who is in charge of the investigation, spent two months going through phone calls made and received by the journalist and checked his bank accounts to find any link with the Tamil Tigers.
Welcoming the journalist’s release, RSF said, “The decision of the justice system to release N. Vithyatharan is good news which should, we hope, open the way to the release of another Tamil journalist, J. S. Tissanayagam, held for more than a year without proof.”
Earlier, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is the president’s brother, had said in an interview with Australian SBS television that Vithyatharan was a “terrorist.”
“He was implicated in a recent air raid. If you try to shield this person, you will have blood on your hands. And if someone says that he was arrested for his journalistic activities, then he will also have blood on his hands.”
More information
- Reporters Without Borders