Migrants stage protest over detained compatriot

Migrants stage protest over detained compatriot
By Stefanos Evripidou Published on March 19, 2011 +-Text size

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AROUND FORTY Sri Lankans and members of the Union of Anarchists protested outside the Interior Ministry yesterday demanding the release of a man who has been detained for 15 months without charge, despite a Supreme Court ruling ordering his immediate release.

According to a statement by the anarchists, the detained Shanmukan Uthajenthiran is a Tamil whose family was forced to leave Sri Lanka at risk of life, under the persecution of a “dictatorship” government. In an effort to communicate with his family, Shanmukan obtained a fake passport to go meet his family in France via Cyprus.

He was arrested at Paphos airport for carrying fake documents and sentenced to three months in prison. After serving his sentence, instead of being released, the authorities decided to keep him in detention.

On January 18, 2011, the Supreme Court ordered his immediate release. Shanmukan’s lawyer Michalis Paraskevas argued that the authorities have been unjustifiably violating an order from the highest court in the country by continuing to illegally detain his client.

He further argued that on January 20, the Supreme Court in a separate decision relating to a detained Pakistani national, issued a similar order for the man’s immediate release. Instead, the authorities deported the Pakistani national the following day.

According to Paraskevas, in the latter decision, the Supreme Court made it perfectly clear that the government was bound by EU law which said that a person could only be detained without charge for up to six months. In special circumstances, which must be stipulated by national law, this can be extended by a further 12 months.

The lawyer pointed out that in the Court’s ruling, it was highlighted that since Cyprus has yet to transpose the relevant EU directive into law, and there is no national law providing for those special circumstances, then any detention lasting longer than six months was automatically illegal.

He called on the authorities to stop the violation of his client’s rights and release Shanmukan immediately, as ordered by the Supreme Court on January 18.