By Shamindra Ferdinando
Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe yesterday emphasized that convicted LTTEers couldn’t be released unless the Maithripala Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration took a policy decision to that effect.
Minister Rajapakshe said that about 60 convicts were among approximately 270 detained by successive governments over a period of time. The President’s Counsel was responding to persistent demand for the immediate release of political prisoners.
The detainees last week launched fast demanding their release.
Justice Minister Rajapakshe strongly denied claims that the convicted as well as three categories of LTTE suspects in custody were political prisoners. In addition to the convicted persons, there were some already indicted, those have pending cases and some given bail.
Responding to a query by The Island, Minister Rajapakshe said that the Solicitor General and ten senior State Counsel were in the process of screening all except those convicts. The Minister said that the government couldn’t ignore the call for releasing those against whom legal action hadn’t been initiated by the previous government. According to him, about 200 persons would be screened before a future course of action is decided. The minister said that a decision would be taken in consultation with President Maithripala Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe soon after he received a report from the Solicitor General regarding the screening process.
Since the January, 2015 presidential polls, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Justice Minister Rajapakshe denied having political prisoners or having secret detention camps.
Former Rehabilitation and Prisons Reforms Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera yesterday told The Island that in spite of some shortcomings, the previous government had achieved great success in its rehabilitation programme. Those who had been taken prisoner on the northern battlefields had been reintegrated into society after rehabilitation, the former MP said, alleging that the four-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) played politics with the issue. “They are fully aware of the atrocities committed by those now in prison on behalf of the LTTE. Yet, they pretend that innocents are being held on bogus charges.”
TNA members, R. Sampanthan, M.A. Sumanthiran and Addaikalanathan visited Welikada on Saturday where they assured the detainees that early action would be taken to secure their release. Detainees called off their fast after meeting the TNA delegation.
Gunasekera said that the previous government had released the vast majority of 12,000 LTTE cadres apprehended during the war before the change of government in January, 2015. Of the 12,000 LTTE personnel not even 100 remained in government custody, the General Secretary of the Communist Party said.
National Freedom Front (NFF) spokesperson Mohammed Muzammil yesterday said that the government should reveal the identities of various categories of so-called political prisoners. Hard-core terrorists couldn’t be allowed to be freed on the basis of them claiming to be political prisoners, former MP Muzammil told The Island, recollecting previous UNP governments releasing even convicts to appease the LTTE. Former President Ranasinghe Premadasa pardoned Maradana bomber, Manohari Daniels in 1989, Muzammil said. Premadasa also released several other hard-core terrorists during his honeymoon (May 1987-June 1990) with the LTTE. The yahapalanaya government shouldn’t succumb to TNA pressure under any circumstances, Muzammil said. The former MP pointed out that among the convicted were two persons involved in the conspiracy to assassinate the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at the final presidential polls campaign rally in Dec 1999.
Muzammil stressed that convicted couldn’t be released under any circumstances. However, the possibility of a presidential pardon, too, was a possibility, the former MP said, expressing concern over the TNA taking advantage of the situation.
Courtesy:The Island