Sri Lankas main Muslim leader Tuesday accused the government of implicating him in a sex scandal to secure his vote while a Buddhist monk charged that a fellow monk legislator had been abducted.
Muslim leader Rauf Hakeem in a special address to parliament said the ruling party had fabricated a sex scandal to pressure his party to break ranks and support the minority government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
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rn"Certain papers have published news items relating to an illicit affair allegedly by me," Hakeem told the assembly. "It is my contention that it is fabricated to bring disrepute to me and to my party and bring pressure to vote for the government.
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rnState-run newspapers have reported an alleged illicit affair between Hakeem and a married woman, a day after a pro-opposition newspaper made sweeping allegations of attempted blackmail.rn
rnState run television broadcast video footage purported to be a testimony by the woman who later went to a private channel saying she had been forc