Tamil civil society activist Kurusumuthu V. Lavakumar was questioned for five hours by Sri Lanka's Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) over his participation in a Tamil Genocide Day commemoration in 2021.
On January 27, two police constables visited Lavakumar's home to give him the summons which was written in Sinhala. Lavakumar tried to explain to the officers that he can not read Sinhala, but the police officers ignored this and stated that he must go to the TID's office in Batticaloa the following day.
Lavakumar, a well-known activist in the Eastern province, was arrested in 2021 under the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for being part of a group that held a memorial to mark the 12th Mullivaikkal commemoration in 2021 at a beach in Batticaloa.
Following his interrogation, Lavakumar spoke to the press and said that:
“The number of death threats has intensified. A fresh inquiry into an old case is being used to harass me once again."
“I request the international community to pay attention to these events and to pressure the government of Sri Lanka to uphold the rule of law," he added.
“I was arrested with nine others for taking part in Mullivaikkal. We were subsequently released and the case was closed. Now a fresh inquiry is being launched for no apparent reason. I have reason to believe there are individuals with vested interests who wish to silence me,” he said. “As far as my lawyers are concerned, this is an old case and one that has been closed. There’s no reason to bring it up again.”
Lavakumar called upon organisations, civil society, and the international community to ensure that individuals like him are not subject to continued threats and harassment.
This is not the first time that Lavakumar has come under threats and intimidation.
Last year, a group of masked gunmen threatened him warning that they would kill him if he continued to expose details of an alleged secret military-run torture camp in the East. Lavakumar said the incident occurred at his home when six men with T-56 and AK-47 rifles arrived on motorbikes at his home in Kiran. They had threatened him to refrain from speaking about Theevuchchenai. “You have opened your mouth about many things in Batticaloa,” the gunmen had told him then. “Today we came to bump you off, but first, this is a warning.”
The incident occurred after Lavakumar spoke out against a secret torture site in Theevuchchenai on the border with Polonnaruwa. The camp is allegedly run by Pillaiyan, alias Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, a government-linked paramilitary leader.
