A court in Sri Lanka has acquitted four Tamil MPs charged under anti-terror laws with making statements against the government and security forces.
They were accused of making statements in Australia and Europe at Tamil cultural events, during a ceasefire between the rebels and the government.
It was alleged that the events were organised by Tamil Tiger rebels – a charge they denied.
Police said that there was no evidence to prove the accusations.
Subsequently a Colombo magistrate on Tuesday acquitted Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs S Gajendran, P Ariyanethiran, K Sivajilingam and S Jeyananthamurthy.
Their lawyer, KV Thavarasa, told BBC Sinhala that the MPs were not the only ones to have addressed Pongu Thamil events in the past – some ministers in the current administration had also done so.
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