A suspect in the assassination of former Sri Lankan foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar was acquitted by the Colombo High Court on Thursday.

The suspect, Aarokiyanathan, was acquitted after being detained for thirteen years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Lakshman Kadirgamar was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 2001 and from 2001 until he was killed in 2005.

Although the Sri Lankan government blamed the LTTE for the assassination, the LTTE repeatedly denied involvement in the killing.

An MP from the Sirisena-Rajapaksa camp has denied the possibility of Sri Lanka’s parliament reconvening on November 5 as reported earlier today.

UPFA MP Susil Premajayantha told a press briefing at Rajapaksa’s SLPP party office that parliament would only reconvene on November 16 as gazetted by President Sirisena.

Sirisena had initially suspended Parliament to shore up support for his move to replace Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

See more on Daily Mirror.

Students at the University of Jaffna held a memorial service to mark ten years since the death of former student union leader Sellathurai Purusothaman, who was killed along with another Tamil youth during a clash with the Sri Lankan Army.

The head of security at Jaffna Teaching Hospital was summoned by Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) this week, TamilWin reports.

Security official Rishanthan was issued the summons on Monday (October 29) to appear the following day (October 30).

At the time of the summons, Rishanthan said he did not have any idea as to the reason for his summons.

The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka met with Maithripala Sirisena earlier today, as she presented her credentials and took up her posting. 

Speaking at the event, Alaina Teplitz said that she was “honoured to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka at this critical moment for the country and region”. 

The Elders, in a statement released today, said that President Sirisena’s action put the “fragile reconciliation process at jeopardy and called on Sirisena to stand on his “past commitments to deliver peace, justice and reconciliation to his people.”

The acting Chair of the Elders and former Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland said,

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Sri Lankan authorities to respect journalists’ safety whilst condemning the take over of Sri Lanka’s press houses in a statement released this week.

See full statement here.

The International Federation of Journalists expressed also concern about the harassment of journalists and state media institutions following the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister.

After the heads of the three branches of the Sri Lankan armed forces met with Mahinda Rajapaksa this weekend, Sri Lankan military websites came out in support of the man they claim is the current prime minister.

^{2017 Theeruvil Maaveerar Naal preparations}

A Jaffna based journalist and members of a Maaveerar Naal organising committee, who organised the event last year in Theeruvil have been interrogated by Sri Lankan police and warned against organising an event this year. 

The committee members and jouranalist were summoned to the Valvettithurai police station on Tuesday, where they were interrogated for over 4 hours over the organisation of the event. 

In a damning situational update on Sri Lanka, the International Crisis Group has recommended military and economic sanctions to mitigate against tangible risks faced by Rajapaksa dissenters and ethnic communities in Sri Lanka.

Stressing the importance of concerted and decisive action, the International Crisis Group statement called for the international community to make clear that military cooperation, economic development funding and trade concessions would be “reconsidered” or “immediately suspended” in response to Rajapaksa’s rise to power.

The statement, released on Tuesday, also called for a renewed and updated UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka due its failure to adhere to commitments of providing accountability and justice for mass atrocities and war crimes.