SJB to move SC against Anti-Terrorism Bill

The main Opposition SJB has decided to move the Supreme Court against the proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill.Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District SJB MP Lakshman Kiriella on Saturday (April 01) said that the SJB would challenge the proposed law on the grounds that it was violative of the Constitution.

Addressing the media in Colombo, Kiriella said that the draft bill contained provisions which would deprive the people of their basic rights. “The government has announced that it will do away with the Prevention of Terrorism Act from as demanded by the human rights activists and the civil society and would bring about a new law. We expected the government to bring in a better law, but what it has unveiled is equally bad.

The proposed anti-terrorism law could be used to brand students, human rights activists, trade unionists, journalists and political activists as terrorists and to ban their organisations and parties as terrorist organisations, the former minister said.

“The primary objective of the government is to suppress the Opposition to facilitate selling off of national assets.”