British High Commissioner James Dauris told Justice WIgneswaran that his government had begun to initiate action on the arbitrary detention of Mr Velauthapilai Renugaruban, who was beaten and forcefully arrested by two men who entered his family home in Jaffna on 2nd of June.
Though an official torture plea has not been extracted from Mr Renugaruban, the detainee's family and representative lawyer in Colombo claim he has been tortured in custody.
Earlier The Guardian reported a Foreign Office spokesperson as saying, “We are providing support to a British man who has been detained in Sri Lanka and are in close contact with local authorities to regularly check his welfare is being maintained while he is in prison”.
British MP Gareth Thomas of the all-party parliamentary group for Tamils, also commented on the case, stating, “We continue to receive reports in the UK about people of Tamil background who have been tortured in Sri Lanka”. “The UK government is not doing enough to confront the Sri Lankan authorities about these claims,” he added.
The High Commissioner’s meeting with the Chief Minister was part of his trip to the Jaffna peninsula this weekend, where he also overviewed Sri Lankan military High Security Zones.
