That’s what the authorities there are trying to investigate:
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Sri Lanka Police is said to be investigating to find out whether the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has any connection with militant Hisbulla Organization based in Lebanon following the arrest and deportation of a Lebanese couple on Saturday, sources in Colombo said.
Apparently on Saturday, an anti-government protest was organized by the “Marxist-Leninist, Communist political party in Sri Lanka”, People’s Liberation Front or Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. The couple arrested were Mohamed Hottait, the Vice President of the Union of Democratic Lebanon Youth (UDLY) and his wife, and subsequently deported.
As the party’s Propaganda Secretary (love the title) explained:
“[The Hottaits] are Marxists and we have met them at international forum. [They] arrived here to make arrangements in connection with the participation of a Sri Lankan delegation at the World Federation of Democratic Youth summit meeting to be held in South Africa in December. JVP condemns this arrest and the issue would be raised at the December summit of the UDLY that is to be held in South Africa.
It seems that the Sri Lanka government is pulling at straws here, trying to justify the deportation of foreign protesters. You’ve arrested them and deported them it should pretty much end there.
Mohamad Hotek and his wife at the protest (Photo: Shantha Wijesooriya/ LankaeNews)