Bail for Sri Lanka’s ex-army chief

Sri Lanka’s former army chief has been granted bail, a move seen as a step toward a full pardon for the man credited with ending the country’s long civil war but who later was jailed after challenging the president in elections.

Sri Lanka’s High Court yesterday set Sarath Fonseka’s bail at $8,000 in a case where he is accused of harbouring army deserters. His lawyer, Saliya Peiris, said that Fonseka was also asked to surrender his passport.

However, Fonseka will not be freed immediately because he is serving a 30-month jail term after a court martial found him guilty of planning his political career while still in the military and of committing fraud in purchasing military equipment.

Separately, in November 2011, he was sentenced to an additional three-year prison term for implicating the defence secretary and president’s brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in war crimes during Sri Lanka’s civil war. He has appealed the conviction.

Fonseka has said the cases are a political vendetta to persecute him for daring to run against incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2010 election. The government has denied any political motive for the action.

Fonseka was hailed as a war hero in 2009 after he led Sri Lanka’s army to victory in its 26-year civil war with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.