Tigers free SEP activists - Amnesty

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 29 September 1998, 14:16 GMT]
Amnesty International, the human rights organisation said Monday that the Liberation Tigers had released the activists of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) whom the LTTE had taken prisoner in August.

Amnesty said in a press release yesterday that Thirugnanam Sampanthan, Kasinathan Naguleswaran and Rajendran Sudarsan were released on 13 September 1998 and Rajaratnam Rajavel was released on 16 September.

A fifth person, E.Nayavel (Amudan), whose name appeared in the original Urgent Action issued by Amnesty, was not taken prisoner as had been reported earlier, said the human rights group.

In its Urgent Action, Amnesty had asked its members to write to the LTTE, requesting assurances that the activists would not be ill-treated or tortured during interrogation.

Press reports quoting a letter to SEP officials written on their release by the activists, said that they had not been ill-treated in captivity.

The SEP said that some of those arrested had been "putting up posters" in Kilinochchi, which is currently the epicentre of the island's war.

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