Head of the island’s Teachers’ Union has been detained for holding a banned protest
Sri Lanka’s authorities on Wednesday arrested Joseph Stalin, the head of the island’s Teachers’ Union, in the aftermath of the large-scale protests which forced the nation’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign.
Police told reporters that the namesake of the Soviet dictator had been arrested “for holding a demonstration in May in violation of a court order.”
In a video, which has been circulating on social media, Stalin, who is considered to be one of the most prominent figures of the protest movement, is heard saying that “the right to protest is a democratic right,” before being taken away by law enforcement officers from his union’s office in Colombo.
Over the last several months, Sri Lanka has faced protests, largely peaceful initially, over severe food and fuel shortages, blackouts and record inflation. The crisis has…