Special committee to dispose PTA cases

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 16 April 2002, 18:30 GMT]
The Attorney General Tuesday appointed a three-member committee comprising senior legal officers to expedite the disposal of hundreds of cases filed under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in various high courts in the country.

The appointment follows the hunger strike by more than three hundred Tamil political prisoners detained at Kalutara. The AG in a letter to the Minister of Rehabilitation and Resettlement Tuesday revealed the appointment of the special committee.

"The special committee has been empowered to order compensation and other relief to PTA suspects after taking into consideration the period of detention in prisons without trial," said the Attorney General Mr.K.C.Kamalasabeyson in his letter.

The committee has also been given powers to summon State Counsels during court vacation period to find out ways and means to expedite the disposal of PTA cases without delay.

Tamil political prisoners at Kalutara prison are on hunger strike demanding that they should be released or be brought before the court. They have also requested the authorities that they should be transferred from Kalutara prisons to other prisons, which are close to their own villages.