Sri Lanka's parliament suspended over ex-minister's sentence

Sri Lanka's Parliament was suspended twice Wednesday morning as the opposition legislators protested the jail sentence passed over former minister S. B. Dissanayake.

Parliamentary officials said the opposition United National Party (UNP) MPs grabbed the mace and protested by sitting in the well of the chamber demanding that S. B. Dissanayake be brought to Parliament from jail.

Dissanayake was sentenced to a two-year imprisonment by a five-member Supreme Court bench on Tuesday after he was convicted of contempt of court charges.

The court held that Dissanayake's speech in November 2003 made in the southern province area of Habaradua was defamatory of the court.

Dissanayake is the UNP's national organizer and once a powerful minister in the Cabinet of President Chandrika Kumaratunga.

He fell out with Kumaratunga in 2001 and defected to the UNP, triggering the collapse of the Kumaratunga government.

The UNP sources said their legislators would disrupt Parliamentary proceedings until Dissanayake is allowed to take part in the Parliamentary sessions.

Source: Xinhua