Political prisoners resume hunger-strike as Colombo transfers hearings to Anuradhapura

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 September 2017, 19:22 GMT]
Three Tamil political prisoners who earlier abandoned their hunger-strike following assurances that their cases would be heard in Vavuniyaa High Court, resumed their protest on Monday as they learned that their cases were being transferred to Anuradhapura High Court on the instructions from SL Attorney General's Department. Mathiyarasan Sulaxan, Rasathurai Thiruvaran (Chengkan) and Ganesan Tharshanan who have been detained without their cases being heard for 8 years are now being prosecuted with manipulated witnesses produced by the SL ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division.

Knowing that such evidences would not be easily accepted by the judge of Vavuniyaa High Court, the SL AG has transferred their cases to Anuradhapura amidst repeated protests from the political prisoners and their families.

Another former prisoner, Vanniyasingam Sujeevan from Paranthan, who was recently release by the TID has alerted the families of the three prisoners that the TID had released a few prisoners from Bossa detention on the condition that they testify against the three with false confessions.

Mr Sujeevan was one of those released. But, he has managed to leave the island and alert the families of the cunning move by the SL TID.

The occupying Colombo is determined to keep a number of Tamil political prisoners in its prisons categorising them as ‘terrorists’ and it has consistently refused to recognise them as political prisoners. Former JVP militants were recognised as political prisoners because they were Sinhalese. But, Tamil ex-LTTE prisoners are not recognised as political prisoners as the SL State and its global abetters have waged a transnational counter-insurgency warfare against the liberation movement of Eezham Tamils by labelling the LTTE as a terrorist organisation.

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