SLN to transfer fishermen to Colombo under PTA
[TamilNet, Friday, 24 March 2006, 00:39 GMT]
Five fishermen who are being detained at the Kankesanthurai Police from Wednesday morning said in a statement to the Attorney at the Jaffna Human Rights Commission Mr M Remedius Thursday that soldiers of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) forcefully arrested them while they were fishing in deep seas close to Mullaitivu about 30 km southeast of Point Pedro, civil society sources said. However, SLN officials said that the five detainees are to be handed over to the Colombo Terrorism Investigation Division under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for further investigation.
Attorney Remedius met the detainees at the KKS Police station Thursday. Four of the fishermen all of whom are more than 45 years old, said that they are daily paid workers hired to help the owner of the boat in deep sea fishing. Veerasingam Manoharan, 46, Muthuvel Sriskandarajah, 61, Arunachalam David, 48, and Podiappu Subhasena, 46, are from Chinabay area in Trincomalee said they were working for the fifth man arrested and owner of the boat, Francis Manoharan, 29, from Iranaithivu area in Pooneryn. The fishermen told Mr Remedius that they were preparing to stay in midsea with their nets and large amount of ice when the engine failed and were arrested by the SLN. SLN had reported after the arrest that the men were cadres of the Liberation Tigers.
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