Sri Lanka”s ex-army chief returns to court martial

COLOMBO: The court martial of Sri Lanka”s former army chief resumed Tuesday, two days before parliamentary elections at which he is a candidate, a military official said.

Sarath Fonseka, who has been in detention since February 8, appeared at the hearing in the tightly-guarded naval headquarters in Colombo.

“General Fonseka is at the hearing which re-opened this morning into allegations that he was involved in politics while in uniform,” the official said, without giving further details. Fonseka will face a second set of charges later Tuesday on alleged corrupt military procurements.

The general denies all charges and says they are part of a political vendetta against him. Fonseka, 59, who led the military to victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels last year, fell out with President Mahinda Rajapakse and unsuccessfully tried to unseat him in elections in January.