The judgment in the case against senior journalist Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam is due to be delivered Monday the 31st of August.
J.S.Tissainayagam is a respected columnist and was the editor of Outreachsl.com. He was arbitrarily detained by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) in Colombo on March 7, 2008. The arrest came after the Police raided a printing press in Colombo, owned by V. Jaseekaran, a one time journalist attached to a Batticaloa based Tamil newspaper Thinakathir. The police arrested Mr.V.Jaseekaran and his wife Ms.Valarmathy during the raid. Mr.Tissainayagam was detained following a visit he made to the offices of the TID requesting information about the detention of his colleagues and subsequently indicted five months later under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for two articles written by him in a monthly magazine. He has been detained for 425 days so far.
Mr.Tissainayagam is the first Sri Lankan journalist formally charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and one of less than a handful of journalists facing counter-terrorism charges in any country with a democratically elected government.
The PTA, a draconian law that has remained on Sri Lanka's statute books despite being introduced in 1979 as an ostensibly temporary measure. Under the PTA and Rules of Emergency, a confession made by an accused is admissible in court and the prosecution does not need a witness. Tissainayagam later revealed that he had been tortured in prison and his confession was given under duress. But the Government repeatedly rejected calls for bail.
The charges are:
1.The accused together with unknown persons conspired to commit an offence by intending to cause the commission of acts of violence through inciting communal disharmony by words either spoken or intended to be read or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, through the printing or distribution of the publication North Eastern Monthly magazine.
2.An offence by the accused himself has been committed by intending to cause the commission of acts of violence through inciting racial or communal disharmony by words either spoken or intended to be read or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, through the printing or distribution of the publication North Eastern Monthly Magazine.
3.The third charge under the Emergency Regulations of 2006 relates to acting in furtherance of specified terrorist activities, ("specified terrorist activities" being defined as offences under the PTA) by contributing or collecting or obtaining information relating to the purpose of terrorism through the collection of funds for the North Eastern Monthly magazine.
The charges against Tissainayagam refer to two articles he wrote in 2006 for the North-Eastern Monthly, in which he criticizes the Government's military campaign and its impact on civilians.
It was reported that Tissainayagam has contracted both tuberculosis and acute infected scabies while in detention and was denied access to adequate medical treatment.
Related Articles:
Full text of Tissainayagam's statement to the Court - Amnesty International
United in Fear: Travails of Detainee families - Ronnate Tissainayagam
SRI LANKA: Tamil journalists detained - International Pen
Release Tissa, Ven. Samitha asks Govt. - The Sunday Times
An international appeal for the release of journalists - Law & Society Trust
Bishop queries continued detention of journalist - The Sunday Times
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