Sarath Fonseka discharged from hospital, taken back to prison cell

Sri Lanka's jailed ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka was discharged from a prison hospital, where he was admitted to earlier this week after complaining of sudden illness, and taken back to his cell, jail officials said today.

59-year-old Fonseka, the leader of the opposition Democratic National Alliance (DNA), has been discharged from the hospital, the officials said.

The Colombo high court had ordered jail officials to provide adequate medical facilities to Fonseka after his lawyers asked it to intervene to ensure proper health care to him. The court had also ordered the prison to provide him an exercise machine and repair the roof of his cell.

However, it is not immediately clear if the repair work on the cell roof was done and facilities ordered by the court had been made available before he was taken back to his cell.

Fonseka's wife said that during the heavy rains last week her husband himself had to use five buckets provided to him by the prison authorities to clear the water out of his cell in order to prevent its flooding.

The former army chief was arrested after the presidential elections in January which he had unsuccessfully contested as the common opposition candidate against incumbent Mahinda Rajapksha.

He was sentenced by a court martial to a 30-month jail term in September for his involvement in corruption in defence deals during his tenure.