Sri Lanka’s foreign minister lashed out at Switzerland on Tuesday, as Colombo denied permission for a Swiss embassy employee who had been abducted and assaulted to fly out of the country for medical treatment.

Dinesh Gunawardena stepped up the diplomatic spat between the two governments by accusing Switzerland of “throwing mud” and stuck by an earlier government statement which dismissed Swiss accounts of the abduction.

Tamil refugees who fled from Sri Lanka to Australia following the civil war in 2009, have spoken to SBS News about their experiences of being deported back to the island.

After displacement, loss of family and safety fears at the end of the civil war, many Tamils boarded on boats to reach Australia in hopes of rebuilding their lives. Many of these asylum seekers took our arduous loans just to board these boats. Whilst on board, they can go days without proper food and water whilst enduring tough conditions with many other asylum seekers. Those who do finally reach Australia face many struggles to be granted asylum with many being sent back to Sri Lanka despite fears for their safety. 

See testimonies from the SBS News piece below. See the full piece here.

Canada’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka met with accused war criminal and newly appointed president Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week, despite continued concerns over human rights abuses under his tenure.

High Commissioner David McKinnon described his visit to Rajapaksa as “a useful first meeting”.

The Colombo Chief Magistrate has announced a travel ban against the Swiss embassy employee who was abducted and assaulted in the southern capital last week, officially barring here from leaving Sri Lanka.

The announcement comes after reports emerged on Monday that Colombo’s international airport has been alerted by Sri Lankan authorities, that the victim may try and flee the island. 

Following a decision to the head of law at Jaffna University Dr Kumaravadivel Guruparan from engaging in private legal practice, Sri Lanka’s University Grants Commission (UGC) has announced that all academic staff members can no longer practise as attorneys.

In a circular released last week, the UGC said that “approval cannot be granted”, despite a previous 2013 decision, which said academics could practise as attorneys, if “such work is not an obstacle for his/her routine duties”.

No further explanation was provided by the UGC.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shares concerns that journalists in Sri Lanka have been subject to different forms of intimidation since Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sworn in as president. 

In a statement, RSF said that press freedom has been impacted just weeks after Gotabaya took office as president. 

Sakthivelpillai Prakash, the editor of the Tamil-language newspaper Thinnapuyal was questioned by plainclothes police in Vavuniya on November 25. He was interrogated about the newspaper’s coverage of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and “they asked him to provide the contact details of all of its reporters, which he refused to do.”

A ceremony was held in Vavuniya to mark 35 years since the Cheddikulam massacre, where the Sri Lankan military disappeared 52 Tamil men and boys.

Switzerland’s Federal Court has ruled that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) is not a criminal organisation and that its primary goal was to establish an independent homeland, in a landmark ruling that has seen 12 Swiss Tamils acquitted of charges filed by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG).

In their ruling, which was made public earlier today, judges found there was not enough proof to consider the LTTE a criminal group under the Swiss penal code. 

Switzerland’s State Secretary Pascale Baeriswyl has summoned Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Bern, after Colombo dismissed accounts of an embassy employee who was abducted and assaulted by unknown men last week.