{"id":74393,"date":"2021-09-30T01:11:22","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T06:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=74393"},"modified":"2021-09-30T16:18:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T21:18:07","slug":"eight-tamil-prisoners-who-were-allegedly-threatened-at-gun-point-by-state-minister-lohan-ratwatte-at-anuradhapura-jail-file-fundamental-rights-petition-ma-sumanthiran-pc-to-appear-for-petitioners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=74393","title":{"rendered":"Eight Tamil Prisoners who were Allegedly Threatened at Gun Point by State Minister Lohan Ratwatte at Anuradhapura Jail File Fundamental Rights Petition ;MA Sumanthiran PC to Appear for Petitioners at Supreme Court hearings"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBY<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivsan<\/strong><\/p>\n

As many as eight Tamil prisoners in Sri Lanka\u2019s Anuradhapura prison on Thursday petitioned the country\u2019s Supreme Court, seeking relief after a \u2018gun-wielding\u2019 Prisons Minister allegedly threatened them a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n

The prisoners stated that they fear for their lives, asking to be transferred to a prison in the Tamil-majority Northern Province. Jaffna parliamentarian and senior lawyer M.A. Sumanthiran will appear for them in the case, media reports said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On September 15, Lohan Ratwatte, who was State Minister of Prison Management and Prisoners\u2019 Rehabilitation, stepped down from the portfolio amid enormous pressure, after allegations of him asking Tamil prisoners to kneel, threatening them at gunpoint, surfaced. Mr. Ratwatte is still a junior Minister in the Rajapaksa administration, overseeing the Gem and Jewellery portfolio, although government critics have demanded that he be sacked from all positions, citing the reported incident that sparked much public outrage.<\/p>\n

In their petition, the prisoners accused the Minister of asking the detainees to stand in a semi-circle and \u201cordered them to kneel before him\u201d. \u201cHe then started to abuse them in Sinhala saying that His Excellency the President had given him all the power in relation to PTA prisoners and that he could either release them or shoot them dead. He had a pistol in his hand and appeared to be intoxicated,\u201d the petition stated. The Minister’s office earlier denied any wrongdoing on his part.<\/p>\n

The eight Tamil men — who have sought relief from the Supreme Court through Colombo-based lawyer Moahan Balendra — are in the remand following their arrest under Sri Lanka\u2019s infamous Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
\nRights activists and Tamil political leaders have for long demanded repeal of the PTA, pointing to different governments\u2019 tendency to use the law to target dissidents or arbitrarily detain \u201cterrorism suspects\u201d for long periods without trial.<\/p>\n

Soon after the violent incident in the prison complex — allegedly involving the Prisons Minister — was reported in the media, the country\u2019s Human Rights Commission started a suo motu investigation. <\/p>\n

International human rights watchdogs were swift to condemn the Minister\u2019s actions. Human Rights Watch said the incident reflected \u201cthe disregard for human rights that prevails under the administration of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and in particular the vulnerable position of people held under the PTA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY Meera Srinivsan As many as eight Tamil prisoners in Sri Lanka\u2019s Anuradhapura prison on Thursday petitioned the country\u2019s Supreme Court, seeking relief after a \u2018gun-wielding\u2019 Prisons Minister allegedly threatened them a fortnight ago. The prisoners stated that they fear for their lives, asking to be transferred to a prison in the Tamil-majority Northern Province. …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Eight Tamil Prisoners who were Allegedly Threatened at Gun Point by State Minister Lohan Ratwatte at Anuradhapura Jail File Fundamental Rights Petition ;MA Sumanthiran PC to Appear for Petitioners at Supreme Court hearings’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74393"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74395,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74393\/revisions\/74395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}