Doctors have provided 'false news' under the influence of the LTTE, say the police

Colombo chief magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi made the order after the police Criminal Investigation Division (CID) said the police have no objections over releasing them on bail.

T Satyamurthy and T Vartharaja, Medical Superintendants of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts and doctors V Shanmugarajah and Ilanchelian Vallavan were detained under the prevention of terrorism act (PTA).

It is confirmed that the doctors have provided false information to international media outlets during the last stages of war under the influence of the LTTE, police informed the court.

'Exaggerated' figures

Releasing the four doctors on conditional bail, the magistrate ordered them to appear before the CID at Vavuniya police station every month.

	The doctors are yet to be charged in a court of law

The counsel for the doctors, E Thambiah, told BBC Sandeshaya that it is not clear whether the doctors will be released soon.

"We are awaiting the decision by the Attorney General to release or charge them in a court of law," he said.

Five doctors, including Dr. Sivapalan, who worked in Sri Lanka's combat zone in the last weeks of the war earlier said that they exaggerated figures for civilian casualties.

They did so, they told reporters at the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS), because of pressure on them from the Tamil Tiger rebels, who controlled the area where they were working.

Regularly during the war some of the doctors said people had died in shelling which appeared to come from government-controlled territory.

They were arrested in May this year and has been in detention since then.