SLA commander ordered to appear in Jaffna courts

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 July 2004, 00:48 GMT]
The Jaffna Magistrate Mr.R.T.Viknarajah Wednesday instructed his Registrar to issue notice on the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) to appear in court on September 7 when it was brought to the notice of the court that the accused military officials in three Habeas Corpus (HC) applications failed to attend inquiry without reasons, legal sources said.

Three HC applications seeking the authorities to produce three Tamil youths, Michael Bernard Johnson of Koiathottam and Fernando Jeyakanthan and Antony Anistan of Gurunagar in the Jaffna town, who are reported to have disappeared after the arrest by army officials during the period of 1996-1997, came up for inquiry Wednesday in the Jaffna magistrate's Court, legal sources said.

Lt.D.A.Karunasekara and Captain Bandara, were in charge of Gurunagar camp and Koiathottam camp respectively during the period when the three youths were arrested by SLA soldiers and later reported missing. The two SLA officers have been cited as respondents in the HC applications, legal sources said.

Both respondents failed to appear in court Wednesday despite several notices sent to them. When this was brought to the notice of the court, the Magistrate ordered his registrar to issue notice on the Commander of the SLA to appear in court on the next date of inquiry, legal sources said