The wife of one of the five Tamil Nadu fisherman sentenced to death by a Sri Lankan court this week has filed a motion at the Madras High Court, seeking the appointment of a counsel to appeal the sentence, reports PTI.

Lavanya, the wife of one of the fishermen named Emerson, has also called on the Union Home Minister to intervene, the news agency added.

The Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa said the armed forces, "equipped with weaponry and knowledge", served as a "bridge which builds the friendship between the ethnic groups", speaking at Temple Trees on Friday evening.

"The security forces are today implementing Sports and Cultural programmes by bringing children in the North to the South and children in the South to the North.  The armed forces have extended massive strength for national development," Rajapaksa reportedly told guests at a defence academy convocation ceremony.

"The three armed forces are advancing in parallel to the development of the country," he added.

The UN Human Rights Committee’s concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Sri Lanka, released on Thursday,  outlined several concerns on the state of freedom of expression and participation in the political process, freedom of assembly and freedom of association, rights of persons belonging to minorities, torture, enforced disappearances and former combatants.

Highlighting the attacks on freedom of assembly and association of Tamils in the north-east, the report said,

“The committee is concerned at the disproportional and discriminatory restrictions on freedom of peaceful assembly and association against Tamils, particularly in the North of the State party, including restrictions of religious and/or civil ceremonies commemorating the loss of loved ones during the armed conflict.”

Drawing upon concerns regarding the Rights of persons belonging to minorities, the report highlighted further concerns about, “ the restrictions and conditions placed on the enjoyment of cultural, linguistic and religious freedoms of minorities in the State party, such as the Muslim, Tamil and Christian communities, including refusal of school admission on grounds of religion, and harassment against minority religious groups which includes attacks on the places of worship of Hindu, Muslim, Evangelical Christian and Jehovah’s Witness communities.”

Protests erupted in Tamil Nadu on Friday against a Sri Lankan court’s sentencing of five Tamil Nadu fishermen to death for alleged drug trafficking.

Effigies of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa were and the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai was laid siege to, reports Deccan Chronicle. Over two hundred demonstrators were arrested said police.

In Rameswaram, the home of many Tamil Nadu fishermen who have faced arrest and detention by the Sri Lankan navy, local fishermen have launched an indefinite strike unless the Indian government appealed the death sentence in a higher court, the paper added. See more here

The Sri Lankan government accused the UN Human Rights Committee of bias, after the Committee raised concerns about the country's adherence to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Speaking to media on Friday, government spokesperson and information minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the committee, which is made up of independent experts, had failed to look into acts carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, highlighting the killing of 700 policemen in the nineties, which the government blames on the LTTE.

In its final recommendations, the committee had raised concerns about the lack of progress on investigations into the killings of Tamils.