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Sri Lankan police raid defeated candidate's office
[January 29, 2010] COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) -- Police raided the office of Sri Lanka's defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka on Friday, officials said.
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The raid came a day after the government alleged that Fonseka, a former army chief and the opposition's main candidate in this week's election, was planning a coup. Police commandos broke into Fonseka's office in the capital Colombo saying they were looking for army deserters, said Mano Ganeshan, an opposition lawmaker. A government spokesman confirmed the report, but did not give details. An Associated Press photographer saw members of the police Special Task Force deployed near the office. Fonseka led the government's military offensive that defeated the Tamil Tigers, ending a 25-year separatist rebellion, but then resigned as army chief and joined the political opposition. He was defeated in Tuesday's bitterly contested presidential poll by President Mahinda Rajapaksa but has disputed the official result and plans to challenge it in court. On Thursday, he alleged the government stole more than 1 million of his votes during the tallying process. The government has denied Fonseka's allegation, and in turn accused him of wanting to organize a coup and of being involved in an alleged attempt on Rajapaksa's life. Fonseka responded that these were trumped-up allegations that could be used to arrest him. |
