Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has ruled that President Mahinda Rajapaksa can contest for a third term, according to leader of the parliament Nimal Siripala de Silva.

The minister said that according to the court, there is no legal barrier preventing the president from holding an election after 4 years in office or seeking a third term.

The issue was taken up for consideration by a full bench of judges, led by Chief Justice Mohan Peiris.

NPC Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan said she feels "threatened", after she was followed by unidentified men on motorbikes, while she was travelling between meetings with foreign diplomatic officials in Colombo on Tuesday.

Sasitharan, who arrived back in Sri Lanka on Monday after attending a Tamil conference in Malaysia, said at least two men were following her vehicle, without making any attempt at hiding their presence.

The councillor tweeted pictures of the men, saying that the members of the Terrorism Investigation Department were "following and threatening" her.

“I felt threatened by the manner they menacingly followed me, being deliberately conspicuous, making no attempt to hide themselves,” she told the Tamil Guardian.

“I raised the issue with the foreign officials I met, but I am worried for my safety.”

(Pictures: Uthayan)

A protest against sexual violence was held by campaigners from the North-East, demanding justice for victims of rape, highlighting a recent case of an 18-year-old woman who was kidnapped and raped in Ariyalai, reported the Uthayan.

The campaigners gathered at Vembadi Junction in Jaffna, demanding that violence against women is stopped and pledged to continue voicing for the rights of victims.

“As I have repeated on numerous occasions the militarisation of the North of Sri Lanka, where I am the Chief Minister, takes place not due to any real security threat, but to maintain a stranglehold over the populace; to subjugate them and make them compliant; to stifle any form of democratic or political dissent.” 

“We have long advocated a phased withdrawal of the military and the handing over of administrative matters to the civil forces according to a transparent timeline. How can Human Security exist when the people are under an occupying force?  And indeed the North and East of Sri Lanka are under an occupying force!”

“In the last few weeks Sri Lanka is openly arresting and intimidating those who are trying to collect evidence for the investigation... The State does not want to allow the evidence to leave the shores of the country – just as in the incarceration of the 350,000  Tamils, the primary aim was to let no evidence leave the shores.”

“The present government has run a coach and horses through our arms export controls, circumventing the legislation we put in place by putting a particular spin on it. It has enabled them to sell arms to countries and for purposes that should not be allowed under the legislation.”

“There is a clear policy in the legislation that arms should only be sold to countries for defensive purposes and not for internal suppression or external aggression.”

Sri Lanka on Saturday rejected UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein's condemnation of the government's persistent efforts to discredit the UN inquiry into mass atrocities on the island, accusing him of challenging the right of a sovereign state to "raise concerns regarding procedural aspects of an investigation".

"The Government of Sri Lanka, its departments and agencies made no attempt whatsoever to prevent bona fide witnesses from submitting information to the investigation team," Colombo's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ravinatha Aryasinha, said in a statement.

"Neither was any attempt made to deter and intimidate individuals from submitting evidence. The submissions that the Investigation would have received by now would stand to prove this fact," he said.

"[You] have challenged the right of a sovereign State to raise concerns regarding procedural aspects of an Investigation which impacts its people and their future in the context of the ongoing sensitive reconciliation process."

The Sri Lankan military has increased its presence in the areas near the University of Jaffna, the Uthayan reported.

Troops who have been based at he main entrance for a few weeks have started questioning passing students on activities inside the university and whether students "are talking in groups", the Tamil daily said.

Sources told the Uthayan that this was due to the forthcoming Maaveerar Naal (Heroes Day) commemorations, which the security forces have attempted to prevent from occurring in previous years.

Sri Lanka’s Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) arrested a young Tamil man on Friday, accusing him of being a former LTTE cadre who had not been rehabilitated, reports Uthayan.

S Mahinthan, a 28 year old man from Kodikamam in Jaffna, was arrested by TID officers who came to his house on Friday.

Mahinthan has since been held under custody at the TID camp in Vavuniya.