Sri Lanka: journalist interrogated by Terrorism Investigation Division after reporting the arrest of a doctor
Event- Country
- Sri Lanka
- Initial Date
- Sep 5, 2019
- Event Description
A senior Sinhala journalist was interrogated by Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) for around six hours for allegedly threatening national security after reporting on the arrest of Kilinochchi’s Judicial Medical Officer (JMO).
Kilinochchi JMO and senior Tamil doctor Dr S Sivaruban was arrested by TID on August 18 for alleged links to terrorist activities.
Sinhala journalist Thinasena Rathgama was summoned to the TID in Colombo after publishing reports that the terrorism police were alleging Dr Sivaruban was involved in an assassination plot against former Defence Secretary and presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa and having links with the LTTE.
Rathgama said he had been accused of threatening national security by publishing the reports.
Dr Sivaruban, who remains in detention, was involved in several high profile cases as JMO, including providing medical reports linking the Sri Lankan army with the so called 'grease devil' attacks of 2011. He was also a key medical witness in the case of the rape and murder of a child by a member of the EPDP paramilitary group.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Offline
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 6.936260744890966
Longitude: 79.85282499540226
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 5 September 2019, Thinasena Rathgama, journalist, was summoned and interrogated for over 6 hours by the Terrorism Investigation Division, after he covered the arrest of a doctor who reported on human rights abuses in Colombo, Sri Lanka.