Lanka to hang 5 Indians on drug charges

COLOMBO/ NEW DELHI: Five fishermen from Tamil Nadu were given the death penalty by a Sri Lankan court on Thursday for drug trafficking, invoking a sharp reaction from India which said it would appeal to a higher court within 14 days.
The five Indians are among a group of eight people sentenced to death by Colombo high court judge Preethi Padman Surasena for alleged involvement in heroin trafficking in 2011. The rest three are Sri Lankans.
India, which has been pursuing the case of Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet for the last four years, said it had done due diligence and found them to be innocent.
Reacting to the verdict, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said in New Delhi, "After the judgment against five fishermen by lower court in Sri Lanka, India once again takes up matter of their innocence with Sri Lanka and India's high commission in Colombo will appeal to a higher court through a lawyer against the verdict."
While a senior MEA official spoke to the Sri Lankan high commissioner to India in New Delhi, the Indian high commissioner in Colombo got in touch with the Sri Lankan government. The spokesperson further said India had been pursuing the case at two levels — legal and official — and would continue doing so.
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"India and Sri Lanka are in constant touch in the aftermath of the judgment against the Indian fishermen," Akbaruddin added.

Arrested Indian fishermen sit at a police station in Pakistan's port city of Karachi (AFP Photo)
The fishermen, apprehended on November 28, 2011, by the Sri Lankan Navy on charges of smuggling heroin in the seas off northern Jaffna's Delft islet, have always maintained their innocence.
The Indian government, through the high commission in Colombo and the consulate general of India in Jaffna, has been extending all possible consular assistance to them, he said. "Government of India is fully committed to continue providing all assistance to the Indian fishermen. The lawyers of the Indian fishermen will file an appeal to the next court of appeal within the prescribed 14 days," the spokesperson said.
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The issue of fishermen is a very emotive matter for both Sri Lanka and India, where Tamil Nadu-based parties including AIADMK and DMK have been regularly pressing the Centre to take up the matter with the Lankan authorities seriously and have often resented high-profile visits from the island nation.
Sri Lanka has alleged that Indian fishermen regularly stray into its waters, depriving local fishermen of their livelihood. The two countries are separated by the narrow Palk Strait, which is also a rich fishing ground.