Lanka arrests protest leader

COLOMBO, Aug 04 (AFP/AP): A top Sri Lankan trade union leader in the forefront of protests which led to the ousting of Gotabaya Rajapaksa from the presidency was arrested Wednesday, witnesses and officials said.

Joseph Stalin, the secretary of the Sri Lanka Teachers' Union, becomes the senior most activist to be arrested in a crackdown against protesters forced Rajapaksa to flee last month.

"He is being arrested for holding a demonstration in May in violation of a court order," police told reporters at Stalin's union office in Colombo as he was being detained.

Scores of others have already been remanded in custody by police on charges of damage to public property during months of protests which peaked with the storming of Rajapaksa's palace on July 9.

An international human rights group says Sri Lanka's government is using emergency laws to harass and arbitrarily detain protesters who are seeking political reform and accountability amid the island country's economic crisis.