The United States says that all Sri Lankan soldiers continue to be fully vetted for involvement in human rights abuses before being allowed to train in the country. Recent appointments however point to holes in the vetting process and raise questions from survivors.  

On Friday, four Tamil political prisoners, arrested under the heavily criticised Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), were released from Anuradhapura Jail after being acquitted by the Vavuniya High Court. 

The political prisoners released included: Nadesan Dharmarasa from Jaffna, Joseph Sebastian from Vavuniya, Nadarasa Sarveshwaran, from Kilinochchi and Jaffna University professor Kanesasundaram Kannadasan. 

Nadarasa Sarveshwaran was taken prisoner in 2016 under the draconian PTA. Two years later, in 2018, a case was filed against him in the Vavuniya High Court. He has now been acquitted and released after being deemed innocent by the court.

A Glasgow woman who was raped and assaulted by a hotel worker at a Sri Lankan hotel, Club Bentota Hotel, in 2010 has won a lawsuit against the tour operator, Kuoni. The judgement was handed down at the UK Supreme Court, 11 years after the lawsuit was filed. Kuoni was ordered to pay the compensation. 

The woman was attacked by the on-duty hotel employee who lured her into an engineering room after telling her he would show her the back of the reception area at the resort. 

Sri Lankan prisoners are to be enrolled in a new government scheme aimed at cultivating fertilisers following severe shortages caused by Sri Lanka's import ban on chemical fertilisers this year.

The Vavuniya High Court acquitted and released Jaffna University Fine Arts lecturer and former LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) member, Kanesasundaram Kannadasan, on Thursday, 30 July, over a year after his life sentence was overturned. 

People ‘s Council of Eelam Tamils (VETD) has urged the German government to immediately stop the deportation of a Tamil torture survivor and asylum-seeker, Sasi K.

Sasi K. moved to Germany in 2015 and was taken into an immigration detention in Büren last Friday. His deportation is set to take place on Tuesday 3 August at 4.50 p.m at Frankfurt airport.

The 14^th anniversary event of Sahathevan Nilakshan, a 22-year-old budding Tamil journalist who was shot and killed by suspected Sri Lankan military intelligence personnel on 1 August 2007, took place at Jaffna Press Club on Sunday.

Wreaths were laid and candles were lit in front of Nilakshan’s photo during the commemorative event. 

Sri Lankan opposition leader, Sajith Premadasa, announced his interest in reintroducing the death penalty for terrorists and drug traffickers at a meeting with reporters outside the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) headquarters in Colombo on Wednesday.

Tamil families of the disappeared held demonstrations across the North-East on Friday, calling for the international community and United Nations to step in to find their disappeared relatives.

Families in Jaffna, Batticaloa, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya protested, emphasising their years-long struggles for justice and answers.

The Sri Lankan government has released a statement, revealing that it had complained to American sportswear corporation Nike, after a video clip of a pair of customised trainers drew the ire of officials in Colombo.

“Video of Counterfeit “NIKE” shoes with LTTE insignia circulating on social media,” said the statement from Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry.