Colombo, September 30 (PTI): Eight Tamil prisoners in Sri Lanka have approached the country's Supreme Court claiming that their fundamental rights were violated by former prisons minister Lohan Ratwatte who allegedly threatened them on gunpoint, their lawyers said on Thursday.
Ratwatte, the Minister of State for Prisons Management, resigned on September 15 after an uproar over his alleged remarks to kill Tamil prisoners during his recent visit to a jail in the island nation's north central region.
In the petition, the prisoners claimed that Ratwatte visited the Anuradhapura prison, where they are lodged, on September 12 and threatened them at gunpoint besides verbally abusing them.
They have requested the Supreme Court for their transfer to a jail in the Tamil-dominated Jaffna district and pleaded with the court to declare that their fundamental rights had been infringed upon by Ratwatte.
After a widespread condemnation by international rights groups, the prisons department and the ministry of justice started separate inquiries into the incident.
Following the uproar, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa asked Ratwatte to step down.
The minister tendered his resignation after an outrage from the Tamil political parties which sought his exit from the Cabinet and arrest over the remarks.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) waged a war with the Sri Lankan government to carve out a separate Tamil homeland with the conflict ending in 2009 when the government forces killed its chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Tamil and human rights groups have pointed to the draconian nature of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which was enacted in 1979 during the early days of the LTTE militancy. During the LTTE's armed campaign, many LTTE activists were held under the PTA.
According to the Lankan government figures, over 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts including the three-decade brutal war with Lankan Tamils in the north and east which claimed at least 100,000 lives.
The Tamils alleged that thousands were massacred during the final stages of the war.
The Sri Lankan Army denies the charge, claiming it as a humanitarian operation to rid the Tamils of LTTE's control.
At the end of the civil war, the United Nations accused both sides of atrocities, especially during the conflict's final stages.
International rights groups claim at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the final stages of the war, but the Sri Lankan government has disputed the figures.
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from news agency feeds and has not been edited by The Morung Express.
Source: PTI
