The Jaffna Magistrate’s Court has refused to grant a ban sought by police on demonstrations during the visit of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to the North on Friday (31).
Police in Jaffna had sought a ban against 5 individuals and organizations whom they say have planned to protest when the President visits Jaffna on January 31, which was rejected by Magistrate A. Anandarajah.
The Magistrate has said everyone has the right to protest without affecting the President’s engagements and within the constitutional provisions.
Speaking to local reporters after the court’s order, Viswalingam Manivannan, an attorney representing two of the respondents, said that the Magistrate has rejected the ban order against protests and allowed peaceful demonstrations.
He represented two of the respondents in the case, the President of the Unemployed Graduates Association and the leader of the protest group in Jaffna, and the Manager at a local hotel-Ponraj Prem Douglas Prabakaran.
“I represented the President of the Unemployed Graduates’ Association and Prabakaran. The others told the court that they were withdrawing and won’t be present at the protest place. However, on behalf of the Unemployed Graduates’ Association, we submitted a petition informing that we will be staging an attention-seeking demonstration and sought permission for that and not to approve the ban. Based on that, the Hon. Court considered our petition and ordered accordingly”.
Although the court granted permission to stage a protest during the visit of the President, certain guidelines were issued by the court. Attorney Manivannan said protestors had been instructed not to cross the road during their demonstration.
“In our petition, we stated the Unemployed Graduates’ Association desires to stage a peaceful protest to highlight our demands without posing any security threat and creating any trouble and argued as such the permission should be granted for it, and it is our right also. Upon our arguments, the Hon. Court permitted us to state a peaceful protest along the route the President will travel without breaching the high-security ring and crossing into the road and staging it as an attention-seeking protest”.
Jaffna Magistrate’s Court had issued notice to five respondents including independent MP Dr. Ramanathan Archuna based on a petition filed in the court on Wednesday (29) from the chief of the Jaffna Police Headquarters stating they have information that the said persons and organization have planned to stage a protest and demonstration during the President’s visit.
The court has sought replies from Jaffna district MP Dr. Archuna, Sarvananthasivam Sasikaran, President of the Unemployed Graduates’ Association Northern Province, leader of the protest group in Jaffna, and Manager of the Tilco Hotel Ponraj Prem Douglas Prabakaran, President of the Temporary Health Workers Union S.Jesmin and the Coordinator of the Voice of the Voiceless organization Murugiah Komagan.
Murugiah Komagan told journalists no such protest was planned by them.
“We were summoned by the court to know our response to the petition filed by the police seeking a ban on the planned protest by us. We told the judge neither we planned for any protest nor were we going to do any such thing. At the same time, we have requested Minister Chandrasekar for an appointment with the President to hand over a petition to him requesting the release of all political prisoners. But no such time was given to us. However, we have sent the petition by mail to the President. Our expectation was to meet him in person and hand over a copy of the letter”.
He went on to accuse the present government of legally trying to oppress them and in no way the present government is different from the past government.
“We expect the President to come with the message of releasing the political prisoners”.
Another person against whom the Jaffna Police sought a ban Prabakaran also told the court he never had any idea of staging a protest but only wanted to hand over a letter to the President like Komagan.
Prabhakaran identifies himself as the President of the Crusaders Welfare Association – Jaffna district leader, but the Police in their letter to the Court mentioned him as the leader of the protest group in Jaffna.
“I am neither the president of such a group nor have participated in any such protests. I am not aware why a summons was issued by the court on me, but came here as summoned and told the Magistrate that we never had any such idea. At the same time, we have sent a letter to meet the President through the minister and Jaffna MP Ilangkumaran. We have obtained over 25,000 signatures in the North and East seeking the release of prisoners who are detained for a long time. Our intention was to hand over the letter along with the signatures personally to the President. So, we never had an intention of a street protest and such a protest is not going to yield any result as well. Also, the charges were fabricated based on imagination, which we told the court”.
He added further the court told them very clearly there is no ban for us to meet the president and hand over a petition to him. “Our only aim is to hand over the copy of the petition and the signatures to him and nothing else”.
Sarvananthasivam Sasikaran, President of the Unemployed Graduates’ Association Northern Province told journalists outside the court complex they had been permitted to stage the protest without endangering security.
“MP Archuna’s name got involved in this only because I invited him to participate in the protest. We express our regret for the inconvenience caused to him. Our attention-seeking protest is not against the government or the president. We welcome the president and have been continuing our protest stage by stage in a non-violent way. So, we will stage the protest peacefully and express our demands to the president”.
President Dissanayake will be on his first official visit to Jaffna on Friday (31) to participate in the District Coordination Committee meeting to be held at the District Secretariat.
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