Colombo: Sri Lankan police has arrested a
British national for allegedly providing "false video footage"
to a British TV channel to produce a documentary that accused
Lankan troops of war crimes.
The Channel 4 documentary 'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields'
was slammed by the government here, which said it was false
and doctored.
A Colombo court on Friday allowed the CID to detain
and interrogate the Briton of Sri Lankan-origin named Kandanam
Jegadishwaram in connection with the case, the Daily Mirror
reported.
The magistrate allowed the detention of the suspect,
accused of providing "false video footage" to Channel 4, till
August 2.
The CID had told the court in an application that the
suspect "had caused disrepute to the country and the army by
providing alleged videos to the Channel 4 television", the
paper said.
The man, who had been living in the UK for the past 21
years had been visiting Sri Lanka regularly, was arrested on
July 4.
The court was told that 71 DVDs were recovered from
his residence in Kandy, and were being probed.
The Sri Lankan military had said recently that it had
found the original video that was 'doctored' by the British
channel. They said the original footage showed Sri Lankan
soldiers being killed by LTTE men, and had a Tamil soundtrack
rather than the Sinhala language heard in the 'doctored'
version.
Sri Lankan government has slammed the documentary as
part of a Western nations led campaign against Sri Lanka.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, July 10, 2011, 13:01