Prisoners demand to be charged or released

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 November 1998, 19:40 GMT]
Six Tamil political prisoners began a protest fast last night, on the roof of the Kaluatara prison. They are demanding that the government should either initiate legal proceedings against them or release them forthwith.

So far they have refused to climb down, said prison authorities.

The Sri Lankan government runs a maximum security prison in Kaluatara, 43 kilometres south of Colombo, where a large number of Tamil political prisoners are incarcerated.

The prisoners allege that the Attorney General of Sri Lanka is unduly delaying the filing of charges against them with a view to prolonging their detention.