Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Friday admitted a petition challenging the arrest of defeated Presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka and said it will hear the case on February 23. The court admitted a fundamental rights petition filed by Anoma Fonseka, wife of the former army chief, which seeks the right to freedom from torture, arbitrary arrest and detention. In her petition, Anoma had asked the court to rule her husband's arrest as illegal.
With tears in her eyes, Anoma Fonseka told reporters from her residence, on Tuesday, that she did not know where her husband had been taken on Monday night."He was not involved in politics while he was in the army. He only took to politics only after he retired from the army."
Jailed former Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka was on Friday granted bail by the high court in Colombo in a case for harbouring military deserters, ahead of an imminent presidential pardon for him.
Sri Lanka on Tuesday, claimed that charges against defeated opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka were "serious enough" to warrant his arrest, raising a question mark on his participation in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections.
'Military police personnel who went to take Fonseka into custody on charges of military offences have neither beaten him nor harassed him on that occasion as reported in a section of the media,' the army said in a statement.
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