Editor of Sunday Leader detained at Katunayake

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 February 2006, 10:40 GMT]
The Editor of The Sunday Leader Lasantha Wickrematunga was detained and harassed at the Katunayake International Airport for more than half an hour on Monday morning when he an arrived there to board a flight to Geneva, Switzerland to cover the peace talks, airport sources said.

Sri Lanka's National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) had instructed the airport authorities to detain Mr.Wickrematunga, according to media reports.

However, Mr.Wickrematunga protested against the moves to detain him and after nearly 40 minutes, we was allowed to go.

Mr Wickrematunge managed to board the flight to Geneva 5 minutes before take off, sources said.