Jaffna Consortium demands release of PTA suspects

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 March 2003, 17:35 GMT]
The Consortium of Peoples' Associations of Jaffna (CPAF) in a memorandum has blamed the United National Front government for acting irresponsibly in delaying the release of Tamil political prisoners who are at present languishing in prisons in the south for several years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) without being brought to trial in courts of law, civil sources said.

At the conclusion of the one-hour picketing in front of the Jaffna district secretariat Monday the secretary of the CPAF Mr. P.Kanagalingam handed a memorandum to Jaffna district TNA parliamentarian Mr.A.Vinayagamoorthy to be handed over to the Prime Minister, sources said.

Mr. Vinayagamoorthy is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister Tuesday regarding the release of PTA Tamil prisoners at Kalutara prison, sources said.

The Consortium has demanded the Prime Minister to release all Tamil political prisoners who are under detention in several prisons in the south on charges based on self-confessions allegedly obtained under threat of violence or torture.

The memorandum further requested the PM to release all the PTA suspects on bail and also to transfer all PTA cases now pending against them to law courts in the northeast province.

Copies of the memorandum have been sent to the head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Amnesty International and Justice Ministry asking for urgent action sources said.

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