Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice Ali Sabry said to Arab News that the Prevention of Terrorism Act will be either revised or repealed depending on a report by two committees appointed by the Cabinet.
“The first will be a ministerial committee, while the second will be a technical group of experts. We will give them three months to submit their findings, and action will be taken based on that,” he said.
Recently, the European Union (EU) Parliament has adopted a resolution calling Sri Lanka to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
The resolution expresses deep concern over Sri Lanka’s alarming path towards the recurrence of grave human rights violations described by the most recent UN report on Sri Lanka. It also expresses concern about the growing role and interference of China in Sri Lanka.
On June 22, the Sri Lankan government told parliament that the PTA would be revised “without compromising the country’s security.”
On what prompted the government to initiate the move now, Sabry said that the PTA “needed to be adjusted with changing times and factor in internet crimes, a high incidence of money laundering and an increasing need to ensure human rights,” as Arab News reported.
