India’s envoy to Sri Lanka, Yash Sinha, on Tuesday met the five Tamil Nadu fishermen, who were recently awarded death sentence, in a Colombo prison  and assured them that New Delhi would make all efforts to secure their early release and return home.

Sinha also persuaded Welikada Prison authorities to arrange for the prisoners to speak to their families in Tamil Nadu over phone, official sources said in New Delhi.

He assured the fishermen of unstinted support from New Delhi. He also assured them that the Government of India would make “all efforts to secure their early release and repatriation to India”.

Five Indian fishermen – Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet – were among eight drug traffickers, who were awarded death sentence by Colombo High Court last Thursday. The other three were Sri Lankan nationals. The eight were apprehended by Sri Lankan Navy near Delft Island on the Palk Strait on October 28, 2011.

They were accused of narcotics smuggling. Sri Lankan Navy claimed that the group of drug smugglers had pretended to be fishermen, when they were caught and handed over to police. The Tamil Nadu fishermen, however, claimed innocence right from the beginning of the trial.

The High Commission of India in Colombo is in touch with the lawyers, who are preparing to go on appeal to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on behalf of the five Tamil Nadu fishermen challenging the verdict of the High Court.

The High Commissioner met the lawyers at the office of the jail superintendent. He handed over to them some clothes and toiletries for the fishermen and enquired about their welfare. He assured them of unstinted support and cooperation of Government of India in ensuring that their case receives the utmost attention, official sources said.

Sources said that the fishermen appeared to be in good health and requested for permission to write to their relatives in Tamil Nadu and also to make telephone calls. The prison authorities readily agreed and promised to arrange for telephonic contact in a couple of days.

The fishermen were free to write letters to their relatives, added sources.  According to the sources in the Government, if Supreme Court of Sri Lanka upholds the death sentence awarded by a lower court, New Delhi will request President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government to commute the capital punishment to life imprisonment.

If the sentence is commuted to life imprisonment by the Sri Lankan President, New Delhi will have the option of invoking a bilateral agreement to bring the fishermen back to serve the sentence in India.

(Deccan Herald)