Life sentence on Tamil youth quashed, acquitted

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 October 2004, 05:12 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal Thursday quashed the life sentence imposed on a Tamil youth Mr.Mylwaganam Wijeyaratnam who was charged under the Prevention of terrorism Act (PTA) and acquitted him from all charges indicted by the Attorney General.

He was indicted for causing death to a group of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army at Kaddumurippu in 1995, based on the confession made by him under the PTA, legal sources said.

The Colombo High Court which heard the case in the year 2002, found the accused guilty on all charges and imposed life sentence on him. The accused appealed against the life sentence imposed by the HC that he was not given a fair trial, the sources said.

The defence took up the position that the confession of the accused during the course of police interrogation was not a voluntary one but recorded under duress, the sources said.