Colombo transfers Tamil Political Prisoners to notorious Anuradhapura prison

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 July 2020, 19:06 GMT]
The prison authorities of New Magazine Prison in Colombo have transferred twenty Tamil Political Prisoners (TPPs) to Anuradhapura prison on Saturday. Five of eleven TPPs who narrowly escaped death or injury at Anuradhaprison prison during the rioting on 21 March and later relocated to Jaffna have also been sent back to Anuradhapura jail on 30 June, legal sources in Jaffna said. All the TPPs at the Anuradhapura have been jailed along with Sinhala hardcore prisoners at death row or life imprisonment. The families of the TPPs are concerned for the safety of the TPPs.

The five TPPs, M. Sulaxan, R. Thiruvarul, S. Thillairaj, N. Nadarajah and J. Sebastian, were transferred to Anuradhapura after the hearings were postponed by another two months at Vavuniyaa court.

The transfer of twenty-one TPPs, serving their terms for several years under the so-called “Prevention of Terrorism Act”, came without any prior notice, according to fellow inmates in New Magazine Prison in Colombo.

The warden of the Anuradhapura prison is alleged of racially discriminating the TPPs.

Among the transferred were some TPPs whose sentence terms are expiring in a few months.

The remaining TPPs in the New Magazine Prison were told that they would be relocated within the prison, away from the ward where they have been imprisoned for more than ten years.

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