Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday denied the state was holding any political prisoners, Ceylon Today reported.
Speaking to journalists during a press brief, the president said the government had no list of political prisoners to release as there were no such prisoners.
"We don't have political prisoners or a list of names", he said to a question posed by Ceylon Today.
Tamil politicians have long complained that the government is not addressing the issue of political prisoners. The TNA leadership raised this with US Secretary of State John Kerry during his visit earlier this month.
In February, Prime Minster Ranil Wickremesinghe admitted that hundreds of Tamil political prisoners are being held, denying that the number was in the thousands.
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