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Reading: Sri Lanka frees trade union leader on bail after arrest draws outcry
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Sri Lanka frees trade union leader on bail after arrest draws outcry

Joseph Stalin, a prominent Marxist trade union leader whose detention had caused large protests and international outrage, was released on b...

Chima Joseph Ugo
Chima Joseph Ugo - Editor-in-chief August 08, 2022
Updated August 8, 2022 at 4:07 PM
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Sri Lanka frees trade union leader on bail after arrest draws outcry
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Sri Lanka frees trade union leader on bail after arrest draws outcry
Joseph Stalin, a prominent Marxist trade union leader whose detention had caused large protests and international outrage, was released on bail by a Sri Lankan court on Monday.

During the months-long protests, which reached a crescendo in July with the flight and resignation of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, police have detained a large number of people on suspicion of causing damage to public property.

Stalin, 57, was detained on Thursday for contempt after taking part in a protest against the government that was outlawed by a court in May.

Stalin, who was given the late Soviet leader's name by his ardent communist father, thanked the UN Human Rights Council members who had requested his release as well as the other activists who had protested for him all throughout Sri Lanka.

“The government cannot intimidate us through arrests, there are at least another 50 protesters who are held across the country,” Stalin told AFP, vowing to continue agitating against the new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

On July 9, tens of thousands of protesters surrounded Rajapaksa's seaside office and palace, accusing him of mismanaging Sri Lanka's finances in response to the island nation's severe economic crisis.

He left the country and resigned subsequently.

His replacement has declared that "rioters" and "protesters" are two different things and promised to take harsh measures against "any troublemaker."

The Sri Lanka Teachers' Union secretary, Stalin, was the senior-most activist detained during the crackdown by the new administration.

Another protester who had broken into the leader's liquor cabinet, gulped a beer, and fled with a presidential mug has also been detained by police.

Another person who stole two official flags from the palace and used them as a bedsheet and sarong was detained.

Social media images from shortly after protestors took control of the Presidential Palace showed people splashing around in the pool and jumping on four-poster beds inside the expansive compound.

The authorities were also given roughly 17.5 million rupees ($46,000) in crisp banknotes by the demonstrators, which had been discovered in one of the rooms.

Last month, the military destroyed a protest camp in front of the president's office, a decision that sparked international outrage over the alleged use of excessive force against unarmed protesters.
Tags: World

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