SL: Briton held for Channel 4 video on war crimes

The Sri Lankan police has arrested a British national for allegedly providing "false video footage" to a British TV channel to produce a documentary that accused Lankan troops of war crimes.

The Channel 4 documentary 'Sri Lanka's Killing Fields' was slammed by the government, which said it was false and doctored.

A Colombo court on Friday allowed the CID to detain and interrogate the Briton of Sri Lankan-origin -- Kandanam Jegadishwaram -- in connection with the case, the Daily Mirror reported. The magistrate allowed the detention of the suspect, accused of providing "false video footage" to Channel 4, till August 2.

The CID had told the court in an application that the suspect "had caused disrepute to the country and the army by providing alleged videos to the Channel 4 television", the paper said.

The man, who had been living in the United Kingdom for the past 21 years, had been visiting Sri Lanka regularly. He was arrested on July 4.

The court was told that 71 DVDs were recovered from his residence in Kandy. The Sri Lankan military had said recently that it had found the original video that was 'doctored' by the British channel.

They said the original footage showed Sri Lankan soldiers being killed by members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and had a Tamil soundtrack rather than the Sinhala language heard in the 'doctored' version.

The Sri Lankan government has slammed the documentary as part of a campaign against the country by Western nations.