Sasikaran Punniyamoorthi, freelance journalist originally from the eastern Batticaloa district, returned to Sri Lanka from Australia on Tuesday, accepting an open invitation by the government of President Maithripala Sirisena for the journalists in exile to return.

“I voluntarily returned to this country to permanently settle down here after this government publicly invited journalists, who fled the country to return. I was arrested on my return at the airport and they kept me there for 28-long hours,” he told Ceylon News.

“They produced me before a court and I am asked to report to the airport CID every month. It’s miserable that I am being treated like this despite being invited by the new government to return,” he said.

Having worked for several media outlets in Sri Lanka, Sasikaran has worked for SBS while in Australia.

“I came back here to live, work and help our people. How can they expect the other journalists in exile to return when I am being treated like this? It is very sad,” Sasikaran said.

The Journalist for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), an exiled journalist network, said that Sasikaran “has been granted bail in the sum of SLR. 10,000 and two sureties”. His passport has also been confiscated.

It said that Sasikaran also wrote to President Sirisena, a month before returning to Sri Lanka, to assure his safety.

“Upon your invitation, following the formation of the new government, I am longing to come back to my country of birth. I respectfully request your excellency to provide me the necessary safety and security to fulfil my wish,” the JDS has quoted Sasikaran as saying in his letter to the President on 18 December 2015.

(ceylonews.com)