Sri Lanka’s justice minister Wijeyadas Rajapakshe assured the Sri Lankan public that there would be no threat to “national security” if the government were to release Tamil political prisoners, in comments to the media on Thursday.
Speaking in Sinhala at a special press conference held at the Parliament complex, the minister pointed to previous release by the Sri Lankan government under Mahinda Rajapaksa as examples of the safe release of those held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
However, he stressed that those who were convicted under the much criticised PTA would not be released.
Mr Rajapaksha, who is also minister of the Buddha Sasana, made the comments as hundreds of Jaffna University students protested yesterday, calling the Sri Lankan government to account, after a school student committed suicide over the ongoing Tamil political prisoners crisis.
See our earlier post: 'Have we not lost enough lives for our rights?' - Jaffna Uni protests in tribute to student who committed suicide (26 Nov 2015)