Sri Lanka: student activists arrested, freed on bail
Event- Country
- Sri Lanka
- Initial Date
- Mar 20, 2014
- Event Description
Mar 20, Colombo: A Sri Lankan court has issued warrants to arrest 15 students attached to the Kelaniya University. The Mahara Chief Magistrate issued the arrest warrants on the university students for allegedly disturbing the peace by holding a protest march despite a court order forbidding it. The arrest warrants were issued as the university students had failed to present themselves in Court following a complaint that they had gone ahead with the protest. About 5,000 undergraduate students of Kelaniya University belonging to the Marxist student union launched the protest march to Colombo Wednesday. However, the police fired tear gas and water cannons and dispersed the protesters when they tried to reach the Presidential Secretariat. The protest march was organized by the Inter University Student Federation (IUSF) over several issues faced by the country's education and higher education sectors including the slashing of budgetary allocations to the country's education sector. Source: Colombo Page UPDATE 27/03/2014: Daily Mirror- The students are freed on bail.
- Impact of Event
- 15
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly
- Right to education
- Right to Protest
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 7.873054
Longitude: 80.771797
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 20 March 2014, arrest warrants were issued by a Sri Lankan magistrate for 15 student activists who were protesting for their right to education. The students were denied permission to protest, but carried the 5000-strong demonstration out anyway, which resulted in the leaders' arrests. On 27 March 2014, they were released on bail.