Former President and SLFP Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa says that charges brought against former UNP General Secretary and MP Tissa Attanayake reflected the desire to exact political revenge against Attanayake because he had switched sides in politics.
The former President said that as such, Attanayake could well be defined as a political prisoner under the current regime.
He made these remarks to reporters after visiting Attanayake at the Borella Prison Hospital on 21 November.
Rajapaksa added the government has used the 2007 ICCPR Act, clause 56, to place Attanayake in remand and that the latter was the first to have been taken into custody and remanded under this Act.
The former President asserted that Attanayake being held in remand was an obvious attempt to vent political vengeance on him.
