SLN arrests Tamil refugees in Mannar Sea

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 23 May 2006, 10:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers Monday night arrested seventeen Trincomalee Tamil families in Mannar seas when they werebeing taken in two boats to South India from Pesalai coast in Mannar district. The SLN later handed them to the Talaimannar Police, sources said.

Talaimannar Police Tuesday produced these refugee families in Mannar Magistrate Court. Two boatmen and their fiber glass boats used for transporting these refugees were also produced in court, legal sources said.

Refugees told court that each of them paid about nine thousand rupees for boatmen for their transport, legal sources said.

Mr.T.J.Pirapaharan, Mannar Additional Magistrate ordered the refugees be released and instructed the civil officer present in court to send them back to their villages.

The court further ordered the boatmen to furnish personal bail of Rs.15,000 and fixed further inquiry for a later date, legal sources said.