CID grills Sampanthan

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 February 2009, 06:57 GMT]
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers subjected R. Samapanthan, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Trincomalee district parliamentarian and leader of TNA parliamentary group to intensive interrogation Tuesday for three hours from 10:00 a.m, in the notorious Colombo ‘Fourth Floor’ interrogation centre regarding Sampanthan's statement that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are the sole representatives of the Tamils in a press meet held in the Colombo Parliamentary complex Friday. Sri Lanka Government is accusing him of expressing a view dangerous to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka, sources in Colombo said.

Sampanthan is the first TNA parliamentarian to be interrogated by the CID after Sri Lanka government proscribed LTTE on 8 January 2008.

In October 2007, CID subjected Vanni district TNA parliamentarian, M. K. Sivagilingam for allegedly lending a vehicle to the LTTE:

TNA parliamentarians S. Jeyaananthamoorthy, P. Ariyanenthiran and S. Gajendran were interrogated by CID on November, 14, 18 and 19 respectively for having made speeches viewed as abreach of the 6th Amendment of the Sri Lankan constitution, in Germany.

Chronology: