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| Jail term for S Lanka journalist | Jail term for S Lanka journalist |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| A Sri Lankan court has sentenced a prominent Tamil journalist to 20 years in jail with hard labour after convicting him under anti-terror laws. | |
| High Court Judge Deepali Wijesundara found JS Tissainayagam guilty of "causing communal disharmony". | |
| Mr Tissainayagam was arrested in 2008 and charged with inciting violence in articles in his magazine, the North Eastern Monthly, which is now closed. | Mr Tissainayagam was arrested in 2008 and charged with inciting violence in articles in his magazine, the North Eastern Monthly, which is now closed. |
| He was also accused of receiving funds from the Tamil Tigers rebels. | |
| Mr Tissainayagam was found guilty of causing "racial hatred" and "supporting terrorism", a court official said. | |
| The court found that he had received money from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to fund his website, the official said. | |
| Mr Tissainayagam's case has received widespread attention in Sri Lanka. International rights group have been campaigning for his release - they say Sri Lanka is using anti-terror laws to silence peaceful critics. | |
| Mr Tissainayagam was held for more than five months before he was charged with publishing and distributing a magazine, alleged to have brought the government into disrepute. | |
| Campaign groups say Sri Lanka is fast becoming one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. |