Death Threats Made a Sri Lankan journalist to FleeAn editor who has criticised Sri Lanka's government fled the country Tuesday (September 17th) amid continuing death threats and an armed attack on her home last month, AFP reported.
The Free Media Movement (FMM) said Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema left for an undisclosed country, the latest of about 80 journalists who have left since President Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power eight years ago.
Her Colombo home was attacked in a pre-dawn raid on August 24th by five men who held Abeywickrema, the associate editor of the Sunday Leader, at knifepoint as they
allegedly searched for documents. "She and her family lived in hiding, moving from house to house since the break-in burglary of her residence," the FMM said in a statement
The military later acknowledged that two of the five were soldiers who deserted the army, but denied that security forces were behind the home invasion. Police shot dead one of the intruders, and described the incident as a robbery unrelated to Abeywickrema's work.
