"The police Special Task Force broke into the office of Sarath Fonseka," aide Asanka Magedara told Reuters. Police arrested 15 of Fonseka's supporters who were in the office at the time of the raid, and seized all the computers and mobile phones there, said Shiral Laktilake, a lawyer for Fonseka.
A Reuters journalist saw police commandos outside Fonseka's office. After the raid, the inside of the office was mostly cleaned out, with boxes, electronic items and papers dumped on the floor. Police spokesman I.M. Karunaratne said he had heard of a raid but could not immediately confirm it. Opposition officials said the raid was designed to intimidate them and stop their plans to protest against the results. Fonseka has said he will launch a court challenge.
"We are in the process of organising ourselves to launch a massive protest and this sort of action is purely aimed at affecting our morale and preventing us from getting on to any collective action," said Rauf Hakeem, head of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress party that backed the general.
Also on Friday, JVP legislator Vijitha Herath said police arrested Chandana Sirimalwatte, editor of the Lanka newspaper. The paper is seen as favouring the JVP, a Marxist party which joined other opposition parties to back Fonseka. Karunaratne, the police spokesman, said he had no official statement. Later, a team of police investigators searched the newspaper's office.
On Wednesday, soldiers surrounded the luxury hotel where Fonseka and other opposition leaders went after polling finished and vote counting was proceeding. The former army commander, a hero to many in the Indian Ocean nation, said he feared arrest but later walked out a free man.
The military said it had gone there to arrest army deserters with him that may have been plotting a coup. Local and international observers generally praised the election's conduct, but condemned campaign violence, abuse of state resources and state media and urged investigation of election complaints. Five people were killed before the vote.