Colombo: A Sri Lankan court on Friday
ordered prison authorities to ensure the personal safety of
detained former army chief Sarath Fonseka, amid fears that
suspected LTTE cadres pose a threat to his life.
The High Court trial-at-bar gave the order to refrain
from housing suspects of the LTTE within close proximity to
Fonseka's cell.
The order came following a plea by Fonseka's counsel who
said that LTTE suspects brought in from outer areas were being
held closer to Fonseka's detention cell endangering his life.
The former top commander is currently serving a 30-month
jail sentence as a military court martial found him guilty for
wrong doing in procedure when he headed the army's procurement
board.
Fonseka was badly injured in an LTTE suicide attack
against him in 2006.
Fonseka led the final war against the LTTE which crushed
the rebel group, ending a 30-year campaign to set up a
separate Tamil homeland in the country's north and east
regions.
He visits court to face charges of causing communal
disharmony in the 'white flag' case where he is bing tried for
allegedly saying that LTTE cadres who wanted to surrender with
white flags had been killed by the troops in the final stages
of the conflict that ended in May 2009.
Fonseka denied the statement attributed to him in a
Sunday newspaper interview in December 2009 when he ran as the
common opposition candidate against the incumbent Mahinda
Rajapaksa in the presidential election held in January 2011.
PTI
First Published: Friday, September 09, 2011, 23:44