The last leader of the defeated Tamil Tiger separatist group, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, has been freed from Sri Lankan military custody after more than three years, the defence ministry said Wednesday.

"He is running a non-government organisation and doing work for the benefit of the people... and he is free to do his work," Lakshman Hulugalle, director general of the ministry's media centre, told journalists. "There is no court case against him."