COLOMBO: A top Sri Lankan trade union leader in the forefront of protests which led to the ousting of Gotabaya Rajapaksa from the presidency was arrested Wednesday, witnesses and officials said.

Joseph Stalin, the secretary of the Sri Lanka Teachers’ Union, becomes the senior most activist to be arrested in a crackdown against protesters forced Rajapaksa to flee last month.

“He is being arrested for holding a demonstration in May in violation of a court order,” police told reporters at Stalin’s union office in Colombo as he was being detained.