Lanka court grants bail to 6 army men in scribe assault case

Six military intelligence personnel in Sri Lanka arrested for allegedly being involved in the assault and abduction of a prominent journalist in 2008 during the civil war against the LTTE were today granted bail by the high court here.

The six army men, including a Major, were arrested in February following a probe by the Lankan police's criminal investigation department (CID) into the abduction and assault of Keith Noyahr, former deputy editor of English weekly newspaper 'The Nation', in May 2008.

The each suspect was ordered to be released on a cash bail of 35,000 Lankan rupees and three sureties of 1.5 million Lankan rupees each.

They were barred from leaving the country and the high court observed that bail can be cancelled if they interfere with evidence and witnesses in the case.

They were further ordered to appear before the CID on every Sunday.

On March 20, the Mount Lavinia Magistrate had issued an order to release the suspects on bail despite the strong objections of prosecution on which the CID was yet to conclude investigations.

However, the CID filed a revision application in the high court challenging the magistrate's order to release the suspects on bail.

Following the revision application filed by the CID, the high court issued an order to suspend the magistrate's order and further ordered to remand the suspects.

Noyahr was abducted on May 22, 2008 and a day later, he was dropped off near his residence, badly beaten up and bruised. After the attack, he fled to Australia with his family fearing for his life.

The abduction in 2008 came shortly after Sri Lanka's bid to be elected to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva failed.

The role of military men was suspected as Noyahr had criticised military leaders in his writings as the defence correspondent of the daily.

The attack on him was one of the many high profile attacks against journalists during the regime of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka was ranked among one of the worst countries to work for journalists during Rajpaksa's regime.

Rajapaksa's successor Maithripala Sirisena pledged to revive all investigations on attacks on media personnel which had been stifled under the former president's rule.

The investigations include the assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunga, a high-profile Sri Lankan journalist who was critical of Rajpaksa's regime.

Meanwhile, another journalist who went into exile due to alleged threats under Rajapaksa regime today lodged a complaint with the CID, claiming that he was assaulted in 2009 by a gang.

The journalist, Poddala Jayantha, now lives in the US.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)