Police silent on whereabouts of arrested Gurunagar youth

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 July 2006, 11:16 GMT]
Parents of Mariyaseelan Jeevakumar, 17, who was arrested by the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers at his home on Friday morning are searching for the details of the whereabouts of their son, civil society sources said. Although the youth is said to have been handed over to Jaffna Police by the SLA, parents have not been informed of his arrest, even after more than two days, relatives of the youth said.

Emergency laws mandate the Police to bring the arrested youth before a magistrate within 48 hours of the arrest, or to obtain explicit authorization from the Defense Ministry to keep him in detention. In either case, the parents or relatives have to be informed of the whereabouts of the detainees, human rights officials in Jaffna said.

In a similiar arrest of a youth from Kopay last week, Jaffna Police had sent an arrested youth to Colombo to be interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Division, but admitted doing so only after the intervention of the Jaffna Human Rights Commision officials, according to civil society sources.

Meanwhile, Sivalingam Varatharajah, 17, a GCE(O/L) student at Jaffna Central College, has been reported missing after attend private tuition class Sunday morning, his mother registered a complaint with the Human Rights Commission office Monday, sources said.