News

News

RSF welcomes arrest of suspects
By Paul Michaud
Paris, Jun. 17 - Stating that it is "encouraged" by the development, Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), the French-based international press freedom organization, said in Paris that it welcomed the arrest of a suspect in the murder of Dharmeratnam Sivaram "Taraki", editor of the news website TamilNet and Daily Mirror columnist and urged the government of Sri Lanka to "step up its efforts" in the investigation.

In the words of RSF's Asia-Pacific spokesman Vincent Brossel, "after more than a month and a half of inactivity, police appear to have made progress in their investigation into the abduction and murder of D. Sivaram by arresting a man found with the chip from the journalist's mobile phone, the organisation said. Four men seized the 46-year-old journalist on 28 April as he was leaving a Colombo bar with friends just a few metres from the Bambalapitiya police station.

His body was found the following day in the Himbulala district close to Parliament. He had been killed with a single bullet to the head and bore marks of a beating.

While welcoming the arrest, RSF stressed that it was essential to identify the killers and the instigators of the murder and to find the motive for this killing of one of the country's best known Tamil journalists.
The organisation said it expected police to inform the press about the latest developments and that they would leave no stone unturned in pursuing their inquiries.

Top

Back to News