{"id":95067,"date":"2013-07-11T11:43:07","date_gmt":"2013-07-11T06:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=95067"},"modified":"2013-07-18T01:44:44","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T20:14:44","slug":"cardiff-cricket-protest-six-tamil-protesters-pleaded-not-guilty-to-invading-the-pitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/cardiff-cricket-protest-six-tamil-protesters-pleaded-not-guilty-to-invading-the-pitch\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff Cricket Protest: Six Tamil Protesters Pleaded Not Guilty To Invading The Pitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six out of Seven protesters pleaded not guilty to the aggravated trespass on the pitch\u00a0during the cricket match between Sri Lanka and India in Cardiff and were\u00a0bailed with the condition that they cannot attend any national or international cricket matches until their trial in September.<\/p>\n

The other protester who invaded the pitch, Manimaran Sadasaramoorthy who pleaded\u00a0guilty to a section five public order offence at Cardiff Magistrates\u2019 Court,\u00a0told Judge Martin Brown\u00a0that his dad had been murdered by the Sri Lankan government.<\/p>\n

“Nine men were charged \u2013 six with aggravated trespass on the pitch \u2013 and the others have been charged with criminal damage to a car, a public order offence and assault.They are all on police bail to appear at Cardiff Magistrates\u2019 Court on July 10.”\u00a0South Wales Police yesterday told Colombo Telegraph.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>According to the Wales Online<\/a><\/span>;\u00a0One man was given a fixed penalty notice for being drunk and disorderly and another arrested on suspicion of disorder is on police bail pending further enquiries.<\/p>\n

“A protester who invaded the pitch during a cricket match between Sri Lanka and India in Cardiff claimed yesterday that his dad had been murdered by the Sri Lankan government. Manimaran Sadasaramoorthy, 42, of Mitcham in Surrey, travelled to Wales on June 20 this year to take part in a legal protest at the city\u2019s Swalec Stadium against the presence of the Sri Lankan cricket team on British soil.”\u00a0Wales Online reported.<\/p>\n

Pleading guilty to a section five public order offence at Cardiff Magistrates\u2019 Court, the unemployed dad of two told Judge Martin Brown that he ran on the pitch during the match carrying a banner \u201cfor the 40,000 people killed by the Sri Lankan government\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

The largely peaceful protests<\/a><\/span> in Cardiff followed a violent incident near the Oval Stadium<\/a><\/span> in London the same week, where Tamil and Sinhala activists clashed during the Sri Lanka-Australia cricket match.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 his case was adjourned until July 23.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor David Cooke told the court Sadasaramoorthy gave a false name and date of birth on his arrest and was later found to have \u201cprevious convictions for dishonesty\u201d, Mr Cooke said, the last of which was in 2006. Asked by Judge Brown why he ran onto the pitch, Sadasaramoorthy \u2013 who was representing himself \u2013 said: \u201cMy dad lived in Sri Lanka in the north east and in 2009 the Sri Lankan government declared a war \u2013 my father was arrested and they murdered him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saying he was aware the ethnic Tamils had a \u201cgrievance\u201d against the Sri Lankan government, Judge Brown asked him to instead explain why he ran onto the pitch on June 20.<\/p>\n

Sadasaramoorthy answered: \u201cOn the day I went a lot of Sri Lankans were shouting \u2018you can never come back to Sri Lanka\u2019, saying if you come there they would kill me, so I told them you are in a democratic country in Britain and that they couldn\u2019t do anything here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I took the flag and ran on to the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge gave him seven days to pay a \u00a3250 fine, \u00a385 court costs and a \u00a325 victim surcharge \u201cin it\u2019s entirety\u201d. Six other defendants who denied public order offences were Regan Chares Kumar Balachandran, 23, of Newham, London, Sukitharshan Karthikesu, 25, of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, Thilakshan Kulasingam, 19, of Mitcham, Surrey, Kaunshanth Maheswaran, 20, of Dartford, Kent, Sivendran Nadarajah, 24, of Mitcham, Surrey and Thayalan Ratnam, 31, of Croydon.<\/p>\n

Related stories;<\/p>\n

Cardiff Cricket Violence: Nine Arrested \u2013 South Wales Police<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Boycott SL Cricket: BTF Wants UK Govt. To Investigate How Peaceful Protesters Were Physically Attacked<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

New Videos \u2013 Oval Cricket Violence: No Arrest Made So Far, Three Arrested An Unconnected Incident \u2013 Scotland Yard<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":92522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nCardiff Cricket Protest: Six Tamil Protesters Pleaded Not Guilty To Invading The Pitch - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/cardiff-cricket-protest-six-tamil-protesters-pleaded-not-guilty-to-invading-the-pitch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiff Cricket Protest: Six Tamil Protesters Pleaded Not Guilty To Invading The Pitch - 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