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Tuesday Dec 03, 2024
Wednesday, 1 November 2017 02:19 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By S.S. Selvanayagam
Attorney-at-Law for the fasting Tamil Prisoners yesterday (31) filed a motion in Appeal Court pleading to re-list their appeal to be taken up today (1).
The appeal filed by the Tamil prisoners seeking the Court of Appeal to transfer their case back to Vavuniya from Anuradhapura High Court day before yesterday (30) fizzled out as when the case was called, they were absent and unrepresented.
Tamil prisoners who embark on continuous fasting in a passive resistance urging to transfer their case back to Vavuniya High Court from Anuradhapura High Court filed an appeal last Wednesday (26)in the Court of Appeal against the Attorney General and the Terrorist Investigation Division(TID).
The Attorney-at-Law in his motion stated that whereas the Counsel for the petitioners was not aware that the case has been listed on the additional list and therefore was no present in Court when the case was called and the Court made no order since these petitioners were not represented by Counsel.
In the circumstances, he apologised for the inconveniences caused to the Court and begs the case may be called on 1 November.
Petitioners Rajathurai Thiruvarul, Mathiarasan Sulakshan and Ganeshan Dharshan who are continuing their abstinence from all food and liquid food for the last 37 days have filed their petition through their instructing Attorney-at-Law M.K.P.Chandralal.
They state that they were arrested by TID and produced before the Magistrate and committed to fiscal custody.
They state they were in remand in various prisons and presently being kept at Anuradhapura Prisons.
They state they were indicted by then Attorney General in the High Court of Vavuniya in 2013 and their case was called 58 instances without trial being started.
Finally High Court Judge of Vavuniya fixed the case for trial for two days in September, they state.
While the case was so fixed for trial in September in High Court of Vavuniya, the Attorney General moved to transfer the case to the High Court of Anuradhapura, they state.
They claim they do not have any relatives or friends in Anuradhapura and they speak only Tamil language and that it will be very hard for their family members to bring a language of their choice to Anuradhapura High Court to defend the case against them and to understand proceedings in the case.
They lament they will be denied a fair trial in the High Court of Anuradhapura and draw attention to the fact that out of 67 witnesses in the case, 64 are from Police and Armed Forces.
They contend that therefore there is no fair reason for the Attorney General to transfer the case from Vavuniya High Court to Anuradhapura High Court at the present improved security context.
