3RD LEAD (UPDATE)

Eight prisoners escape from Batticaloa jail

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 June 2006, 03:29 GMT]
Eight prisoners, many of them detained for more than a year without inquiries, broke out of Batticaloa jail, Sunday morning between 7:20 a.m and 7:30 a.m. One of the prisoners was pointing a handgun on the head of the security guard at the main entrance while the escapees got into an auto-rikshaw and fled from the high security area of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA). SLA soldiers and the police launched a search operation in the area Sunday morning, sources from Batticaloa said.



The detainees, arrested on charges of carrying fire-arms at different incidents, have been staging protest campaigns, including protest fast on the roof of the prison, demanding legal action or release on bail.

They had dropped the protests after the ICRC and the slain Batticaloa parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham, visited the prison and urged them to discontinue the protest.

Batticaloa Police issued the names of the escapees:

• K. Balendran from Iruthayapuram in Batticaloa
• Nadarasa Sasikumar
• Kandiah Karan
• Muthulingam Uthayakumar from Kalkudah
• Ariyakumar Jegatheeswaran from Mavadivembu, Vantharumoolai
• M. Sivakumar
• Samithamby Satheesakaran from Arayampathi
• Samithamby Manoharan from Akkaraipattu

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Prison Commissioner in Colombo claimed that the prisoners escaped Saturday night and their escape was discovered only Sunday morning.