Vavuniyaa Judge warns SL Attorney General against delaying tactics on TPP cases

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 April 2018, 16:46 GMT]
Vavuniyaa High Court Judge Balendran Sasi Mahendran on Tuesday gave a strong message to SL Attorney General's Department questioning the absence of its representative at the hearing of the case of three Tamil political prisoners on Tuesday. The case was taken up at Vavuniyaa High Court after it was transferred back following firm pressure from the prisoners and their people against the transfer the case from Vavuniyaa to Anuradhapura last year. Fixing a new date for the hearing the Judge said the AG should not miss representation next time and went to the extent of stating consider a new Judge if there were any hesitation against him hearing the case. But, the hearings should proceed without further postponements, Judge Sasi Mahendran has warned.

Mathiyarasan Sulaxan (Kara’navaay North in Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna), Rasathurai Thiruvarul (6th Division, Vela’nai West, Jaffna) and Ganeshan Tharshan (Naavalap-piddi, Kandy) have repeatedly been protesting against their cases being transferred away from Vavuniyaa High Court to Anuradhapura or any other court in the South.

The prisoners waged a 38-day long fast-unto-death struggle in Anuradhapura prison at the end of 2017.

The people, politicians who stand with the people, NPC councillors, grassroots organisations and the University student community in Jaffna joined the protest.

However, the SL Attorney General Department has been dragging its feet citing delays in locating a witness, alleged reluctance by witnesses to appear in Vavuniyaa courts and by failing to be present at the hearing after it was transferred back to Vavuniyaa court.

In the meantime, the SL Police investigators have also attempted to fabricate false evidences against the three prisoners.

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