Sri Lanka - Court of Appeal to decide on Hejaaz's bail on 7th February


(MENAFN- Colombo Gazette)

The Court of Appeal will decide on granting bail to Attorney-at-Law Hejaaz Hizbullah on 7th February.

The Puttalam High Court had last week refused to grant bail to Hizbullah.

Hizbullah was arrested on 14 April 2020 by members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Sri Lankan Police.

After initially not being informed of the reason for his arrest, the authorities later accused him in the media of aiding and abetting the individuals involved in 21 April bombings in Sri Lanka—an accusation that has since been withdrawn. The authorities later charged him with speech related offenses under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

The PTA provides authorities with sweeping powers to arbitrarily detain individuals for up to 18 months without charge, being brought before a judge, or trial, among others. Hejaaz has been denied regular, unrestricted access to his lawyers and family throughout his detention.

Amnesty International had said that he is a prisoner of conscience and must be immediately and unconditionally released and all charges against him dropped. (Colombo Gazette)

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Colombo Gazette

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