General Sarath Fonseka, the defeated candidate in Sri Lanka's presidential election, has been arrested at his office in Colombo on charges of plotting to overthrow the country's government, defence officials have said.
General Prasad Samarasinghe, a military spokesman, said the arrest related to "military offences" from Fonseka's time in the army, which ended in November when he quit and entered the presidential race.
"General Fonseka has been arrested on charges of committing military offences," Samarasinghe said in an official statement on Monday.
The former army chief "was dragged away in a very disgraceful manner in front of our own eyes", Rauff Hakeem, Sri Lanka's Muslim Congress leader, told the Reuters news agency. More on Al Jazeera