Sri Lankan businessman dies after being arrested and tortured

Perera’s arrest and death was not an isolated case or a mistake as the media and police have tried to claim. His brutal treatment was the product of the climate of hysteria, communalism and fear being deliberately whipped up by the government as it intensifies military operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The security forces and the media are creating panic about the dangers of LTTE bombings to justify further inroads into basic democratic rights.

Perera was arrested after the principal and vice principal at Mihindu Maha Vidyalaya school in Ratnapura complained to police of receiving a call warning of an impending explosion. The police detained the businessman and his employee Gamini Munaweera, claiming the latter’s cell phone had been used to make the call. The arrests were made even though Munaweera, on hearing of the complaint, went to his local police station to demonstrate that his phone could not have been used.

Munaweera told the WSWS that, from the outset, he and his employer had been treated as guilty and denigrated as traitors. After their arrest, officers at the police station had abused them as Sinhala Koti or Sinhalese members of the LTTE. When dragged before a magistrate’s court, the police and prosecution prevented defence lawyers from even speaking by screaming that the case was a matter of “national security” and demanding that the two be remanded in custody.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/sril-a08.shtml