The supreme court in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo has sentenced Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam to twenty years hard labour.

The court found the journalist guilty of inciting racial hatred and accepting money from the separatist movement Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to fund his website.

Mr Tissainayagam wrote critical stories about the Sri Lankan offensive against the LTTE, in which many civilians were killed.

The separatists were definitively defeated in May after decades of fighting for an autonomous Tamil state in the northeast of the island state.

Mr Tissainayagam has been in custody since March last year.

Sri Lankan and international media rights groups have repeatedly called for his release.