Sri Lankan court seeks tapes of former Army chief speeches

The Magistrate's Court in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Friday called for taped recordings of former Army chief General Sarath Fonseka's election platform speeches as part of the court investigations, court officials said.

The court ordered two privately owned television channels to produce the recordings of Fonseka's speeches backing his candidature in the presidential election held in January.

The tapes are being called with regard to the court case involving Fonseka's alleged statement that the Sri Lankan military shot dead Tamil Tiger rebels who had come before the military to surrender by raising white flags.

Fonseka is likely to face treason charges once the prosecution finalized gathering evidence, officials said.

Fonseka later cleared his position that he was conveying information provided to him by a journalist and his troops did not commit any war crimes during its last battle against the rebels.

The former Army chief is currently under military detention facing two court martials.

Source:Xinhua