Jeleepan, Komahan call off hunger strike after meeting TNA MPs

The two Tamil prisoners, 36-year-old Jeleepan Sivarasa and 32-year-old Komahan Murugiah, waging a huger-strike at the New Magazine prison, called off their protest on Wednesday evening around 3:00 p.m., after two Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, D. Sitharthan and S. Viyalendran, met the Tamil prisoners and urged them to postpone their hunger strike giving SL authorities one more chance to address their cases without further delay. The SL Minister for ‘Prison Reforms’ Mr D.M. Swaminathan has agreed to instruct the SL Police ASP Senakumara Singhe to be present at the High Court in Jaffna when Jeleepan Sivarasa's case is taken up for investigation, the Tamil prisoner said.

The SL court should punish the Police ASP for having failed to attend the case during the last 6 years, Mr Sivarasa told media. Jaffna High Court is expected to take up his case on 18 January.

“It remains to be seen whether the SL Minister of Prison Reform Mr Swaminathan would be able to deliver what he has promised,” Mr Sivarasa told TamilNet.

The other prisoner, 32-year-old Komahan Murugiah, a former member of Jaffna Municipal Council, detained since July 2010, has also called off his hunger strike after the two TNA MPs urged him to postpone the protest to next month.