Tamil youth arrested in Katunayake airport

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 August 2009, 03:14 GMT]
A 22 year-old Tamil youth was arrested by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) of the Sri Lanka Police on his arrival from South Africa at the Katunayake International Airport (KIA) on Wednesday. Currently he is being detained in the Fourth Floor of the Criminal Investigation Department for further inquiry, relatives in their complaints to human rights organizations said.

Thangavel Dinesh, a resident of Jaffna was residing in Wellawatte in 2007 to go abroad.

A foreign employment agency sent the youth to a European country via South Africa. But he got stranded in South Africa. There he was arrested by South African authorities and detained for the last two years.

Last week he was deported to Sri Lanka.

Dinesh arrived in Colombo escorted by a South African government officer who handed him to a Sri Lanka’s Immigration and Emigration official at KIA.

NIB officials at the site immediately took the Tamil youth into custody.