A Sri Lankan court has ruled that an alleged confession made by senior Tamil journalist JS Tissainayagam while detained by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) was voluntary and admissible as evidence in his trial on terrorism charges, according to delayed reports.
It is widely believed that Tissainayagam was forced to make a statement to TID under extreme duress. Giving evidence in Colombo's High Court on December 5, Tissainayagam denied making a voluntary confession.
After being detained by the TID of the Sri Lankan police on March 7, Tissainayagam was held without charge or explanation for more than 150 days. It is alleged that Tissainayagam, the editor of an online newspaper, OutreachSL.com, made a voluntary confession during this time.
However, Tissainayagam was reportedly subjected to duress and denied private access to lawyers, according to the Internaitonal Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Court hearings during this period were postponed arbitrarily. The Supreme Court denied Tissainayagam's lawyers a fundamental rights petition for interim relief, submitted on the grounds of arbitrary arrest, torture, discrimination on the basis of ethnicity and a denial of equality of protection under law.
Indictments against Tissainayagam and his two colleagues, N Jesiharan and his partner Valarmathi, were filed before the High Court of Colombo on August 25. The three were charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), a draconian law introduced in 1979 as an ostensibly temporary measure.
IFJ and other international press freedom organisations are extremely concerned for the safety and welfare of the three. Tissainayagam and Jesiharan, the owner of E-Kwality Printers, were moved from a remand prison to the notoriously dangerous Magazine Prison in Colombo on November 17, according to the Free Media Movement (FMM), an IFJ affiliate. The continuation of the trial against Tissainayagam has reportedly been postponed until December 18.
