Lankan protesters at UK cricket match given bail, ban
Saturday, 13 July 2013 00:26
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A Sri Lankan protester who invaded the pitch during a cricket match between Sri Lanka and India in Cardiff, has been released on conditional bail by a UK court, Wales Online reported.
Manimaran Sadasaramoorthy, 42, of Mitcham in Surrey, travelled to Wales on 20 June this year to take part in a legal protest at the city’s Swalec Stadium against the presence of the Sri Lankan cricket team on British soil.
The team lost to India by eight wickets in the Champions Trophy semi-final.
Pleading guilty to a section five public order offence at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court, the unemployed dad of two told Judge Martin Brown that he ran on the pitch during the match carrying a banner “for the 40,000 people killed by the Sri Lankan government” and a Tamil Eelam flag of a proposed independent state that Tamils in Sri Lanka want to create in the north and east of the country.
The largely peaceful protests in Cardiff followed a violent incident near the Oval Stadium in London the same week, where Tamil and Sinhala activists clashed during the Sri Lanka-Australia cricket match.
Sadasaramoorthy was accused alongside six other protesters, who all pleaded not guilty to the offence and were bailed with the condition that they cannot attend any national or international cricket matches until their trial in September.
An eighth man admitted throwing a stone at a passing car outside the stadium, while a ninth man accused of common assault was unable to submit a plea because he could not understand the Tamil interpreter provided by the court – his case was adjourned until 23 July.
Prosecutor David Cooke told the court Sadasaramoorthy gave a false name and date of birth on his arrest and was later found to have “previous convictions for dishonesty”, Cooke said, the last of which was in 2006.
