The Colombo High Court has for the first time granted bail to four persons under new provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).. The suspects who were allegedly involved in an assassination attempt on Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran had been remanded for a very long time.
Normally suspects charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) were remanded until the end of the case but with recent amendments, the High Court is able to grant g bail to PTA detainees under exceptional circumstances.
The court heard that suspects Karalasingham Kulendran, Mariyanayagam Ajanthan, Murugaiah Thavendran, and Gnanalingam Rasmathan, and A fifth suspect, Mahai Anojan ( Australian citizen tried in absentia) were arrested in 2017 and were first arrested for drug-related offenses and later charged for an attempted assassination.