Sri Lanka: arrest of ex-army chief and unsuccessful presidential candidate

A dramatic turn in Sri Lanka. The unsuccessful presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka was arrested on Monday by the police, on charges of “military offenses”. The authorities suspect the former head of the armed forces of wanting to instigate a coup d’état.

Ally last spring to the outgoing president in the fight against the Tamil rebels, Sarath Fonseka has become in a few months his enemy. After the victory against the Tamil separatists, he resigned his post as chief of the armed forces in November and stood for the presidential election on January 26.

Denouncing large-scale irregularities in the ballot, Fonseka had announced that he had filed a complaint with the electoral commission and that he would ask the Supreme Court to cancel the poll. Officially, he won 40% of the vote and the outgoing president was re-elected with nearly 58% of the vote.

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