A former minister of the United National Party (UNP) Sirisena Cooray has denied allegations that he helped a Marxist leader of the JVP (People's Liberation Front) to escape from the country during 1987-90 when the security forces were hunting for him.

The JVP leader, Somawansa Amarasinghe has now returned to the country ending a 12-year-old self-imposed exile in Europe.

He was one of the seven politburo members of the JVP which staged an abortive attempt to overthrow the then UNP government in '87-90.

Amarasinghe is distantly related to former UNP minister Sirisena Cooray, who was the party general secretary at one time. It had been widely speculated that Cooray helped Amarasinghe to flee the country when all six remaining politburo members including the JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera was killed.

Cooray was quoted in the Daily Mirror newspaper as saying "Somawansa Amarasinghe is the brother of my late brother Nandasena Cooray's wife. The last time I met him was in 1971 and I never had any hand in his political connections or played any role in his getting out of the country".

"In today's politics we see brothers from the same family contesting from two different parties. Somawansa Amarasinghe is the brother-in-law of my brother. So just like that I am entitled to my political ideology as he is entitled to his and that's it" Cooray had said.

"When I was appointed a minister in 1989 by President Premadasa, Somawansa Amarasinghe telephoned me and after congratulating me said... 'from tomorrow we will attack you'," Cooray said.

However, despite the denial, it has been known among the UNP circles that Cooray had made appeals to the then deputy defence minister late Ranjan Wijeratne to spare his relative Amarasinghe.

"Only one of the politburo members was able to escape. All the others were tracked down very successfully," a former minister of the UNP told Gulf News.