Minister ‘promises’ Tamil language court proceedings

The Sri Lankan Minister for National Languages and Social Integration Vasudeva Nanayakkara has reportedly ‘promised’ that Tamil prisoners can receive their judiciary proceedings in Tamil, according to ColomboPage.

Hundreds of Tamil political prisoners have been languishing in jails, with legal proceedings being carried out against them entirely in Sinhalese. Cases of Tamil political prisoners being
attacked and killed  by security forces have also occurred this year.

However the Minister assured the prisoners that Tamil language proceedings would be provided, noting that special courts have been set up to try these prisoners, including those accused of ‘conspiring’ with the diaspora.

See the report from ColomboPage here.

Also see Nanayakkara’s praise of Sri Lanka’s human rights record in an interview earlier this month here, calling Sri Lanka “one of the best countries in the human rights practice”.

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