Subscribe our Newsletter and receive great deals.
The Tamil National Alliance today urged the government in Parliament to grant an amnesty to Tamil detainees kept in prisons without prosecuting them.
TNA Leader R Sampanthan in a special statement in Parliament said that the government had failed to expedite the judicial process with regard to these detainees’ prosecutions despite assurances to do so.
“If the legal proceedings could not be initiated against those who are kept in detention, why not release them under an amnesty? Tamil political detainees are being tortured and this raises serious human right concerns,” he said.
Prisons Reforms and Rehabilitation Minister Chandrasiri Gajadeera said that the government had no choice but to act when prisoners hold prison guards hostage.
“I insist that not a single bullet was fired when an operation was launched by the STF. Prisoners had in their possession iron clubs, chains and various other weapons and assaulted those STF men who engaged in the rescue operation. They had mobile phones with international direct dialing facilities in their possession,” the Minister said.
