The wife of one of the five Indian fishermen sentenced to death by a Sri Lankan court on charges of drug smuggling has moved the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Centre and others to appoint a counsel and conduct the appeal in an effective manner.
In her petition, Lavanya, wife of Emerson, sought a direction to the Union home minister, director (Sri Lanka) in the MEA and the Indian high commissioner in Sri Lanka for appointment of a counsel for the convicted fishermen and also steps to secure her husband.
Meanwhile on Saturday, families of the fishermen observed a one-day fast to press government to take immediate steps to bring them back home.
Meanwhile the five Tamil Nadu fishermen will appeal against their conviction before a two-judge bench of the Colombo High Court next week, an Indian High Commission official said on Saturday.
The official said that steps to appeal against the ruling of a single judge of the Colombo High Court will be taken after securing a certified copy of the judgment on Monday.
As per the Sri Lankan legal system, an appeal has to be made within 14 days.
“We will make the appeal as soon as possible, may be on Monday or Tuesday,” counsel Anil Silva told Express.
If the appeal fails, the fishermen can approach the Supreme Court. As the last resort, they can apply for a Presidential pardon. The Indian High Commssion has employed a highly rated President’s counsel Anil Silva to represent the fishermen as their case is very strong.
The defence has GPS data from both the fishermen’s boat and the Sri Lankan naval vessel to show that the Indian boat was nowhere near the place they allegedly were in when they supposedly transferred 995 grams of heroin to three Sri Lankan fishermen in an another boat. The alleged the transaction took place off Delft Island at the fag end of November 2011.
On Friday, North Lankan fishermen held a demonstration at Gurunagar in Jaffna protesting against the sentence given to three of their colleagues. Like the TN fishermen, North Lankans also maintained that they were framed by Lankan navy. – Agencies
