Fonseka jailed
November 18, 2011
Sarath Fonseka, who was jailed for three years on Friday, was already serving a 30-month prison term after a military court convicted him on corruption charges.
As a commander of the Sri Lankan army, Fonseka played an instrumental role in defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 and ending the 26-year long civil war.
Hailed as the most successful Sri Lankan army general ever, he soon fell out with President Mahinda Rajapakse and refused to take on the ceremonial post of chief of defense staff. He retired from his position in November 2009 and decided to enter politics, running unsuccessfully against Rajapakse in the 2010 presidential elections.
Days after the election, he was arrested and found guilty in a court martial of planning his political career while still in the military and of fraud in purchasing military ware.
Accused of executing Tamil rebels
On Friday, the three-judge Colombo High Court bench, split on the ex-general's case by 2-1, also found him guilty of violating emergency regulations and the killing of surrendering Tamil rebels during the war.
Fonseka has claimed that he carried out the executions on the orders of President Rajapakse's brother, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse. The defense secretary denied these allegations during the trial, which lasted 16 months.
Fonseka, who faced up to 20 years in jail, will be expected to perform manual labor during his three-year term. The court specified "rigorous imprisonment."
The United Nations say that at least 7,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed during the final months of the 2009 military operation against the LTTE. They accuse both the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tigers of committing war crimes and killing civilians during the war. The Sri Lankan government denies the allegations and has set up its own tribunal to investigate the matter.
Author: Shamil Shams (AFP, AP, dpa)
Editor: Anne Thomas