A Hindu priest who has been in custody for nearly 13 years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) has finally been released, after a Colombo court accepted he was forced into signing a confession over an assassination attempt on Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary.
The priest. identified as Sriskandarajah Sharma, had been arrested in 2006 under the much criticised PTA, after an assassination attempt on Sri Lanka’s then defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
There was no evidence against the priest apart from a confession, that Colombo High Court Judge Sampath Abeykoon accepted he had been forced into signing.
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Sri Lanka’s notorious PTA came under the spotlight once more this week, as United Nations report called it a “piece of deeply flawed legislation” that had “permitted the authorities to stigmatise, brand and prosecute entire communities”.
“Tamils have been, and still are, overwhelmingly and disproportionately affected by the operation of the Act,” stated the report adding that “a picture emerges of widespread institutional stigmatisation of a single community.”
