Claim
Muslims brought Coronavirus to Sri Lanka, claims Sajith Premadasa in address to island nation’s parliament.
Fact
The viral video is edited and leaves out key bits from Sajith Premadasa’s Parliament speech, where he can actually be heard condemning the ruling party for vilifying Muslims over the pandemic.
A TikTok video where the Opposition Leader and SJB presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa can be heard making derogatory remarks against members of the Muslim community in a speech in the parliament is going viral. In the video, Sajith Premadasa can be heard saying that Muslims brought Coronavirus to Sri Lanka. However, Newschecker found the claim to be false and that the video was edited.
The video was widely shared on social media platforms such as TikTok and Facebook.
Did Sajith Premadasa really say in the parliament that Muslims brought Coronavirus to Sri Lanka? Newschecker decided to fact check the claim.
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Fact check/Verification
Newschecker began the verification process by splitting the video into keyframes and conducting a reverse image search on them with the keywords “Sajith Premadasa”, “corona virus” and “parliament”. This led us to a speech made by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa in parliament on 3rd of November 2020.
Speaking on the floor of the house, Sajith Premadasa can be heard criticising the government for targeting Muslim community by claiming that they spread the corona in the country. Four minutes and 15 seconds into the address, we could spot the portion of the speech that is now viral. But Premadasa can be heard lashing out at the government for purportedly targeting Muslims by accusing them of allegedly bringing COVID to Sri Lanka, and does not make the accusation himself, as the viral video seeks to present.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) allowed the COVID victims to be buried or cremated; whatever they like. But the Minister said that they implement all regulations of WHO. Now, the government is targeting Muslim community to put the allegation to spread the corona in the country”, Sajith Premadasa said.
Thus we find that the portion of his speech where Premadasa can be heard criticising the government for vilifying Muslims have been edited out and has been shared out of context.
Conclusion
Thus, we find that the viral video claiming to show SJB presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa said in Parliament that Muslims brought Coronavirus to Sri Lanka is edited and has been shared with a false claim.
Result: Missing context
Sources
Full footage of Sajith Premadasa’s parliament speech on November 03, 2020, uploaded on Facebook
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