SL police seize journalist’s laptop over Swiss kidnap claim

COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan journalist working for The New York Times has said police raided her home and seized her laptop over the alleged kidnapping of a Swiss embassy staffer last year.

A diplomatic row erupted in late November after the Swiss embassy said the woman was abducted and sexually assaulted by unidentified attackers. Her alleged kidnap came a day after a Sri Lankan police inspector investigating cases involving the powerful Rajapaksa family -- who returned to power in November -- sought asylum in Switzerland.

Dharisha Bastians -- a New York Times correspondent and former chief editor of the Sunday Observer, a local newspaper -- said that police raided her home in the capital Colombo last Tuesday.

"Five CID (Criminal Investigation Department) officials arrived at my residence in Colombo with a warrant to search the house... my computer was found, seized and sealed," she tweeted on Monday.