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.

The Sri Lankan government has reportedly alerted Colombo’s international airport that a Swiss embassy employee who was abducted and assaulted by unknown men last week, may plan an attempt to leave the island.

NewsIn Asia quotes a highly placed source on Monday as saying that Colombo airport was alerted about the possibility of the employee leaving “as a precautionary measure”.

Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission said that “justice must be done” in response to the abduction and threatening of a Swiss embassy employee in Colombo last week.

In a letter written to Sri Lanka’s police chief, the Human Rights Commission said it was “deeply concerned” over reports of the abduction and said that holding those responsible to account was “absolutely essential” to strengthen public confidence in law enforcement.

Sri Lanka's President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, issued a gazette stating that he is proroguing Parliament with effect from midnight of December 2 until January 3 2020.

The head of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) warned that if the Sri Lankan government continued to avoid its international commitments, it may soon be termed a “failed state”.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror with regards to a UN Human Rights Council resolution on accountability for violations of international law, TNA leader R Sampanthan said, "If Sri Lanka keeps avoiding its international commitments, it will soon lose its legitimacy and be termed a failed state”.