Batticaloa prisoners transfered to Kalutara

[TamilNet, Saturday, 24 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Sri Lankan prison authorities removed 60 Tamil political prisoners from the Batticaloa jail to the Kalutara prison at noon yesterday. The prisoners were taken in a covered bus to Colombo.

Sources said that this was part of the plan to detain all Tamil political prisoners in the former military prison at Boosa about 98 kilometers south of Colombo.

Tamil political prisoners were held in Boosa military detention centre between 1984 and 1987.

Several prisoners whose release had been ordered by courts are also among those removed to the Kalutara prison yesterday.

They were being held despite the court order because the final order for their release had not been sent by the Ministry of Defence.