Sri Lanka court acquits Tamil MPs

By Saroj Pathirana
BBC Sinhala

A court in Sri Lanka has acquitted four Tamil MPs charged under anti-terror laws with making statements against the government and security forces.

They were accused of making statements in Australia and Europe at Tamil cultural events, during a ceasefire between the rebels and the government.

It was alleged that the events were organised by Tamil Tiger rebels - a charge they denied.

Police said that there was no evidence to prove the accusations.

Subsequently a Colombo magistrate on Tuesday acquitted Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs S Gajendran, P Ariyanethiran, K Sivajilingam and S Jeyananthamurthy.

Their lawyer, KV Thavarasa, told BBC Sinhala that the MPs were not the only ones to have addressed Pongu Thamil events in the past - some ministers in the current administration had also done so.

"However, I pointed out that the charges were only filed against these four MPs," he said.