Court releases Vavuniya Red Cross head

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 August 2000, 16:46 GMT]
Sivanathan Kishore, the head of the Vavuniya branch of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRC), who was arrested by the Sri Lankan Police allegedly for links with the Liberation Tigers and detained for more than 16 months under the draconian Prevention Terrorism Act (PTA) was released Monday without charges by the Colombo high court.

The judge, Sandadasa Nanayakkara, said in his judgement that the confession obtained from Mr.Kishore by the Police investigators under the provisions of the PTA was not acceptable.

Sivanathan Kishore was taken into custody on 26 April 1999 following the arrest of his driver Eeswaran on 10 April. The SLRC driver was accused of being a member of the Liberation Tigers operating under-cover in the northern border town of Vavuniya.

Kishore was charged with receiving monies from the Liberation Tigers and of having links with the leader of the LTTE.

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