( CNN ) -- A Sri Lankan court sentenced a journalist Monday to serve 20 years in prison for articles that criticized the military , according to the Asian Human Rights Commission . Tamil journalist J. S. Tissainayagam is led from court after being sentenced . `` The AHRC is not surprised by this judgment because at the very inception of this case , the AHRC pointed out that this is purely a political case , '' the commission said in a statement . J.S . Tissainayagam , the editor of a monthly magazine , was arrested in March 2008 for printing articles critical of the Sri Lankan military 's treatment of civilians during the country 's war on the Tamil Tiger rebel group , according to several human rights groups . The Tamil journalist was held without charge for several months , prompting outrage from human rights and press freedom organizations . He was later charged under the country 's controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act . His case has drawn international attention to the plight of press freedom in Sri Lanka , which ended its decades-long war against the Tamil rebels earlier this year . The country 's military has been accused of numerous atrocities against civilians during the final months of the 26-year conflict . Sri Lanka has denied the accusations , and routinely rejects calls by human rights groups for independent investigations into its campaign against the Tigers . U.S. President Barack Obama mentioned Tissainayagam in his May 1 statement on World Press Freedom Day : . `` In every corner of the globe , there are journalists in jail or being actively harassed : from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe , Burma to Uzbekistan , Cuba to Eritrea . Emblematic examples of this distressing reality are figures like J.S . Tissainayagam in Sri Lanka , or Shi Tao and Hu Jia in China . '' The Asian Human Rights Commission condemned Monday 's sentence as `` the most glaring proof of the absence of freedom of expression in Sri Lanka . '' It called on Sri Lanka and the international community `` to condemn the judgment and the sentence in Tissainayagam 's case and to call for his unconditional release . ''
J.S . Tissainayagam , editor of a monthly magazine , arrested in March 2008 . Printing articles critical of Sri Lankan military 's treatment of civilians during civil war . Tamil journalist was held without charge for several months . Comment: