The United National Party has decided to sue state-run “Silumina’ and “Mawbima” newspapers reports they on carried saying UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe met with representatives of Tamil Diaspora organizations during his recent visit to London.

The UK branch of the United National Party issuing a statement today announced that it would take legal action against then two papers for what they termed as “slanderous stories” against the opposition leader.

The announcement said that the two papers had maliciously used a photograph of the opposition leader’s meeting with UNP representatives in the UK to show that Wickremesinghe met activists of the Tamil Diaspora.

The organization added that those who were in the picture were Indika Kumara (Executive Committee member of the UK branch of the UNP),  Darshana Daniel (Secretary), Roshan Samantha (Treasurer of the National Youth Front) and Harshana Kannangara (Chairman of the UK party branch). They alleged that the two newspapers deliberately used this photograph to tarnish the image of the opposition leader. 

Some sections of the government charged that the opposition leader’s alleged meeting with the Diaspora has influenced the European Union to lift the ban on the LTTE.

Meanwhile, issuing a statement a few days ago, UNP Leadership Council Chairman Karu Jayasuriya said that the European Court of Justice ruling relaxing the terror controls on the LTTE was a failure of the Government, which should appeal the ruling legally by making submissions to the court.

“The UNP has never held a soft position towards the LTTE. Even the simplest minds will understand that if that were true, the LTTE had no reason to enforce a boycott to ensure the defeat of an UNP candidate at the 2005 presidential election,” Jayasuriya said in a media statement.