* Petition filed in Sri Lanka Supreme Court seeking arrested journalist's release
Mon, Mar 22, 2010, 08:27 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

Mar 22, Colombo: A petition has been filed in the Sri Lanka Supreme Court today seeking the release of the arrested journalist Ruwan Weerakoon.

Weerakoon, a journalist close to the defeated presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka, is a regular defence correspondent to the Bottom Line and Nation newspapers and Asia Tribune website.

He was arrested by the Terrorist Investigation Division while receiving treatment at a private hospital in Colombo.

The petition states that Weerakoon was taken to the TID while he was receiving treatment for a heart ailment at a private hospital and denies the charge against him that he was working to topple the government.

The media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders issuing a statement recently condemned his arrest and said that Weerakoon's arrest and the decision to prosecute him is part of a witch-hunt against the relatives and supporters of General Fonseka.