Tamil Nadu’s former chief minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa has been granted bail by India’s Supreme Court.

Jayalalithaa was forced to resign her position as chief minister last month after being sentenced to 4 years in prison for corruption.

Her lawyers had argued for her release on bail due to her health condition and are appealing her conviction.

The Supreme Court ordered her to "complete all paperwork" relating to the appeal against her conviction within two months in the Karnataka high court, warning it would not give her "a day more" if she failed to complete the necessary procedures.

Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan has spoken out against the abuse of Tamil political prisoners in Sri Lanka's prisons, and has called for their immediate and unconditional release.

In a press release on Thursday, Ms Sasitharan expressed her horror at the 'savagery', violence and abuse, which Tamil political prisoners are subjected to and vowed to mobilise to protest against their ongoing detention.

Full text of press release below:

"The Northern Provincial Council has passed countless motions calling for the unconditional release of Tamil political prisoners locked up for years under the suspicion of the same government of Sri Lanka which claims to have achieved peace and reconciliation after the war, but there has been no visible progress.

That Tamil youth are massacred and tortured in jail is known by all, since 1983 and continuing to the present day. The sudden deaths of Tamil political prisoners in prison are frequently justified or covered up by the state.

"Concerns remain over the situation in the north and east. Two young girls (aged 9 and 11) from Jaffna were allegedly gang raped for 11 days by Sri Lankan Navy personnel; the court case continues. On 25 July, journalists covering court proceedings were allegedly threatened and evicted from the court room by intelligence personnel. In Jaffna, similar threats were allegedly made to journalists on 11 July when they attempted to document the survey of private land to be appropriated by the Sri Lankan Navy. On 3 September, a Catholic priest was questioned by intelligence personnel over poetry he wrote about the war. The spokesman of the Ceylon Teachers’ Union noted that three principals from northern schools were questioned by the Terrorism Investigations Department (TID) over their role in distributing the poetry. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister of the Northern Province alleged that he was spied on by members of the intelligence service," reads the FCO update.

Monks from the Buddhist group, Ravana Balaya, invaded Sri Lanka’s Bureau of Foreign Employment on Thursday, threatening to use force to sack its director general, reports the Colombo Page.

Photograph US Embassy Colombo

A US delegation, led by Assistant Trade Representative for Central and South Asia, Michael Delaney, is currently in Sri Lanka for the 11th Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Joint Council Meeting.

The chief minister of Tamil Nadu O Paneerselvam, in his latest letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the Sri Lankan navy's treatment of Tamil Nadu fishermen, called for his intervention to secure the release of 75 fishing boats, currently held by Sri Lankan authorities.

In his second letter to Modi, the chief minister said the vengeful action of the Sri Lankan navy and authorities in that country had affected the livelihood of Indian fishermen, according to The Times of India.

"The Sri Lankan side has deliberately and deviously hardened its stance and adopted this harsh approach of not releasing the boats," he said.

"Even now, it is reported that disuse and lack of maintenance have led to their deterioration. The high velocity winds accompanying the monsoon will damage these precariously anchored boats beyond redemption," he said, urging Modi to the government to address the issue and ensure the release of the boats.

Greenpeace has welcomed the ban placed on imports of fisheries products from Sri Lanka, after the country failed to co-operate in the fight against illegal fishing, said the organisaiton.

The environmental NGO said Sri Lanka had “failed to co-operate in the global fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing".

Welcoming the decision, Saskia Richartz, Greenpeace EU oceans policy director said,

“The EU is a major market for seafood products from all over the world. It has a duty to protect the environment and consumers and improve labour standards, regardless of whether it is producing its own seafood or buying it from others. Where diplomatic efforts fail, the EU is right to ban the imports of products from countries like Sri Lanka that fail to manage their fisheries properly.”

Sri Lanka was previously Europe’s second biggest importer in the sector.