T. Kumar, rights activist shaped by prison, dies at 76

Thambithurai Muthukumarasamy, a human-rights activist known as T. Kumar, died on Jan. 19 at 76, Amnesty International confirmed. His sister, Krishnal Muthukumarasamy, said the cause was complications of sarcoidosis. He lived in the Washington, D.C., area, but the report says it was unclear where he died.

Born on Feb. 23, 1949, in Thirunelveli, Sri Lanka, Mr. Kumar became an outspoken student leader for the predominantly Hindu Tamil minority and spent more than five years in various stints in Sri Lankan prisons in the 1970s. Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience and mounted a campaign for his release; he was held at Fort Hammenhiel and later jailed in southern Sri Lanka, where he said he and others were abused.

While imprisoned he studied for admission to law school and was eventually allowed to begin his legal studies; after finishing law school in Sri Lanka he entered private practice defending Tamils. Intensifying repression led him to flee Sri Lanka; he traveled through Malaysia and Africa and obtained a U.S.

visa in Botswana before settling in the United States and earning a law degree at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1990s. Mr. Kumar worked at Amnesty International for more than 20 years, serving as director for international advocacy and as advocacy director for Asia.

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