Trincomalee Chief Magistrate, M.Hansa, delivered the verdict today acquitting 13 Special Task Force members who were suspected of executing five Tamil youth whilst they spent an afternoon at Trincomalee beach on 2 January 2006.

Fifteen charges were filed against suspects and they were released due to the lack of evidence.

Sri Lankan police arrested the country’s police chief and its former defence minister on Tuesday, for alleged negligence over the Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed over 250 people.

The arrests of police chief Pujith Jayasundara and former defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando, comes after Sri Lanka’s Attorney General de Livera accused the two of committing a “grave crime against humanity” for failing to prevent the attacks. Both men were reportedly receiving medical treatment at state-run hospitals at the time of their arrests. 

Tamils protested in Jaffna on Tuesday demanding the release of political prisoners, following the death of a detainee last month.

Muthaiya Sahathevan died of illness after 14 years of detention. Despite high profile protests and campaigns across the North-East, and the involvement of Sri Lankan politicians - including the president - the situation of Tamil political prisoners remains unchanged, with the majority in detention without trial or charge.

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence is to strengthen its intelligence apparatus in a restructuring move that will give its leadership more "authoritative status" to tackle 'security threats' including "separatism".

The governor of the Northern province admitted that the Sri Lankan military was causing environmental damage by exploiting Mullaitivu ground water.

The remarks came at a meeting of the district development committee last week when Governor Suren Raghavan was told about the Sri Lankan army extracting millions of litres of water daily from a tube well in Karaithuraipatru (Maritimepattu).