Sri Lanka court grants bail for doctor accused of sterilising Buddhist women
Sri Lankan: A Sri Lanka court granted bail on Thursday to a Muslim doctor accused of having sterilized over 4,000 women from the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, his lawyer said, a deeply sensitive case in a country long dogged by communal bloodshed.
Shegu Shihabdeen Mohamed Shafi, who has denied the allegations, was given bail of 2.75 million rupees, defense lawyer Faris Saly told Reuters after a five-hour hearing in Kurunagala magistrates court in northwestern Sri Lanka.
He was arrested (in May) under a bailable offense and the judge found no reason to refuse bail today, Saly said.
Police stood guard at the court and surrounding area in the South Asian country’s Buddhist heartland, 105 km (65 miles) north of the capital Colombo, where Buddhist monks and other local residents had sought Shafi’s continued detention.
The allegations are incendiary on an island where hardliners within the Buddhist majority have accused Muslims of seeking to use a higher birth rate to spread their influence.
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