Mannar explosives case suspects complain of torture

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 July 2005, 15:28 GMT]
Mr.N.M.M.Abdullah Friday ordered further remand till 12 August for the seven suspects including a woman arrested in Mannar for possessing explosives, legal sources said. The Magistrate further instructed Anuradhapura prison authorities to keep the suspects in the prison hospital and to submit medical reports on the conditions of the suspects when they complained in open court that they had been subjected to assault and torture while in custody, legal sources said.

All seven suspects were brought Friday to the Mannar court under heavy guard from Anuradhapura prisons.

More police personnel and army soldiers were deployed in the Mannar town as a precautionary measure, according Police.

The Magistrate asked the suspects why they did not complain of assault and torture when they were first produced in court soon after the arrest.

However, when some of the suspects showed wounds in their bodies sustained while in the custody the Magistrate directed the prison authorities to to submit reports after medical examination of the injuries, legal sources said.

Mannar Police arrested five suspects when they were allegedly unloading explosives from a boat to a three-wheeler on the Mannar shore and later arrested a woman and his son in their house.