Tamil Nadu politician Vaiko takes part in a protest against the death sentence awarded to the fishermen, in Chennai yesterday.

IANS/Chennai

 

The government yesterday vowed to get five Indian fishermen sentenced to death by a Sri Lankan court freed through legal means.

The fishermen from Tamil Nadu were convicted on charges of drug trafficking.

Federal Surface Transport and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said legal steps were being taken to secure the release of the fishermen.

Gadkari was speaking to reporters after meeting the family members of the fishermen in Rameswaram.

He also said a permanent solution to the harassment faced by fishermen from the Sri Lankan forces would be found through talks.

In Colombo, India’s High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Yash Sinha met the five men at the Welikada prison and assured them that the Indian government would make all efforts to get their early release and repatriation.

Sinha met Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet at the superintendent’s office where he handed over some clothes and toiletries and inquired about their welfare.

He assured them of the Indian government’s unstinted support and co-operation in ensuring that their case receives the utmost attention, official sources said.

The fishermen appeared in good health and sought permission to write to their relatives in Tamil Nadu and also to make telephone calls.

The prison authorities readily agreed and said they would arrange for telephone calls to be made by the prisoners in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, they were free to write letters to their relatives, the sources added.

The fishermen expressed happiness over the high commissioner visit and thanked him.

India has conveyed to Sri Lanka its concern over the death sentence and is waiting for the final copy of the court judgment in order to appeal against it.

External affairs ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said earlier in New Delhi that India and Sri Lanka have in place a “legal architecture” to deal with such cases and cited an earlier instance in which the death sentences of two Indian nationals were commuted to life imprisonment by the then Sri Lankan president.

 

 

 

 

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