Agencies/New Delhi/Colombo
In what comes in as a relief to the families of five Tamil fishermen, Sri Lankan Minister Prabha Ganesan has said President Mahinda Rajapakse has agreed to pardon the five Indian fishermen who were sentenced to death for drug smuggling in the
island-nation.
“The five Indian fishermen sentenced to death will be released,” Ganesan told India’s CNN-IBN news channel.
On Tuesday, India had said it was confident that “justice will prevail” in the fishermen’s case even as it filed an appeal in the Sri Lankan Supreme Court.
The Sri Lankan government, though, has asked India to withdraw its appeal in their Supreme Court filed against the High Court order.
The Indian high commission was on Monday handed over the order stating that the five accused — Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet — were sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court on October 30 on charges of drug trafficking.
“It is a delicate matter,” India’s Ministry Of External Affairs Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin had said, adding that “we haven’t reached a situation where we could say the situation has reached a happy
conclusion”.
On Tuesday, while briefing reporters accompanying Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Myanmar, Akbaruddin said in an answer to a query that the “Government of India gives high priority to the issue of the five Indian fishermen” and “will pursue all avenues”.
“I can confirm to you today (Tuesday) that on behalf of those five fishermen an appeal in the Sri Lankan Supreme Court has been filed,” he added. The appeal was filed by a lawyer who has been selected by the Indian high commission in
Colombo.
“He is amongst the top lawyers in Sri Lanka and he has filed that appeal. The Government of India will bear all costs of this appeal,” Akbaruddin said. “We will pursue this, as I had repeatedly said, to the best of our ability. We are confident that justice will prevail in this case,” he
had said.
Last week, India’s high commissioner to Sri Lanka Yash Sinha met the five Indian fishermen at Colombo’s Welikada prison and assured them of every effort to secure their early release and repatriation.
