Plea to extradite TN fishermen in SL on death row

An advocate has moved  the Madras High Court bench here praying to direct India to initiate the process of extraditing five Tamil fishermen, who were recently awarded death sentence in Sri Lanka on charges of smuggling drugs.

The petitioner submitted that the five fishermen — P Emerson, P Augustus, B Wilson, K Prasath and J Lanket — were arrested by Sri Lankan Navy in November 2011 and last week sentenced to death by a Sri Lankan court.

According to him, they were apprehended within 12 nautical miles within Indian territorial waters and hence the case against them must be tried by the Special Court for NDPS cases in Thanjavur. Pointing out that the two countries shared an Extradition Treaty that provided for exchange of under-trial and convicted prisoners, he sought the extradition of the fishermen. He prayed the court to issue a direction to the Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka to initiate promulgation proceedings before the Federal Court of Sri Lanka as per the Extradition Treaty paving way for transfer of the fishermen to Madurai Central Prison. (New Indian Express)