Sri Lanka to free jailed ex-army chief

A member of parliament in Sri Lanka said on Wednesday he believed President Mahinda Rajapaksa would soon order the release from prison of the country's former army chief, revered by many of his compatriots for helping end a 25-year civil war.

The jailing of General Sarath Fonseka has prompted criticism in Western countries and his release would be seen as a step towards addressing concerns over human rights abuses. The United States has repeatedly called for the release of the general, who challenged Rajapaksa in the 2010 presidential election.

"I met him (the president) this morning and we discussed some pending issues with regard to the release," Tiran Alles, an opposition legislator and a negotiator on behalf of Fonseka, told Reuters.

"I think it should happen soon, but there is no date fixed."

A government spokesman, Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene, said the cabinet had yet to be told of any decision to release the former army chief.

"The president hasn't informed the cabinet yet. We don't yet know whether he will inform the cabinet tonight," he said.

Fonseka, a former close ally of the president, is serving two prison terms - a 30-month term handed down by a military court for misappropriation and a further three year term handed down by a civilian court for making a false statement.

Last week, he asked to be transferred to a private hospital for treatment for respiratory problems.

Fonseka, 61, is considered a national hero by many Sri Lankans for his role in overseeing the final defeat of Tamil Tiger separatists in 2009. A suicide bomber nearly killed him in 2006, but he was back at his desk within three months launching what turned out to be the final campaign.

ALLEGED ABUSES

Western governments say the conflict - which pitted government forces against the Tigers, who had been fighting for a separate state in the north of the island for the country's Tamil minority - was marked by human rights abuses in its final phase.

The government is under Western pressure to address war crimes allegations, and the nation's external affairs minister, G.L Peiris, is currently on a four-day visit to Washington.

"If and when former Army commander Sarath Fonseka is released, it will not be due to any international or national pressure," Bandula Jayasekara, a presidential spokesman, told Reuters.

Fonseka was prosecuted by a civil court for an interview he gave to the Sunday Leader newspaper in which he said he had been told that Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ordered troops to kill surrendering Tiger military leaders.

The defence secretary, the president's younger brother and a former infantry officer who fought alongside Fonseka, dismiss the allegations. Fonseka later said he had been misquoted.

During the war, Fonseka and the Rajapaksas were seen as inseparable allies. But they quickly fell out after the victory in May 2009, with the general complaining he was being sidelined and the president increasingly concerned he would launch a coup.

The article over which Fonseka was prosecuted was about the "White Flag" case, documented in a U.N.-backed report that said there was "credible evidence" that both sides committed war crimes in the final months of the war.

Fonseka was arrested barely two weeks after the presidential election in early 2010 on a raft of charges, which the general said were politically motivated. He nonetheless won a parliamentary seat in April 2010 but the court-martial conviction cost him his seat, and he was stripped of his rank.
 

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