• 20 activists including 2 present/fmr Convenors not required to report to Cinnamon Gardens Police Station every month in 2020 protest case     

The Colombo Magistrate’s Court on Monday (6) lifted the bail condition imposed on 20 suspects, including Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF) Convenor Wasantha Mudalige and former Inter-University Bhikkhu Federation (IUBF) Convenor Ven. Rathkarawwe Jinarathana Thera, that they should appear before the Cinnamon Gardens Police Station once a month in relation to a case pertaining to a protest in 2020.

The relevant case, which has been filed by the Cinnamon Gardens Police Station naming 20, including Mudalige and Jinarathana Thera as suspects, was taken up before Colombo Magistrate Prasanna Alwis on Monday. Accordingly, the Magistrate ordered that the case be taken up on 29 May when the Attorney General’s instructions will be received. He also ordered that the bail condition which had been imposed on the suspects that they should appear before the Cinnamon Gardens Police Station once a month, be lifted.

The Cinnamon Gardens Police has filed the relevant case at the Colombo Magistrate’s Court, claiming that Mudalige, Jinarathana Thera, and others had held a protest near the Lipton Circus Roundabout in Colombo, thereby being members of an illegal assembly in 2020.

Mudalige, who was being detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act from August 2022, was released from the relevant case by Magistrate Alwis on 31 January. He was also enlarged on bail in relation to three other cases which are being heard at the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court on 1 February.