The family of MP Rishad Bathiudeen and brother Riyaj Bathiudeen today released a statement through their lawyer revealing that their arrests in connection with the Easter Sunday attacks were politically motivated. "We are instructed to state that the arrests are politically motivated. The ACMC supported the present opposition at the last Presidential and General Elections. The ACMC is today a part of the country’s opposition. The ACMC also represents a predominant share of the Muslim community," the statement read They said that this is a racially revengeful process to punish the political leadership of the Muslims, "which had nothing to do with 21/4, for the dastardly acts of some Muslim youths who were widely alleged, as having been used as pawns by foreign powers." They stated that if the CID had notified the two of them, they would have appeared at the CID, as they had done many times in the past, both as party noticed as well as complainants. "There was no need to have demonstrated, any show of force to the rest of the family or to those around," the statement said. They revealed that no reasons for the arrest had been given at the time of their arrest by those who conducted the mid-night raid. "We are shocked that those representing the democratic state should begin this process in violation of the law which requires the persons arrested to be informed of the reasons at the time of the arrest or to uphold the principle of the presumption of innocence," the statement revealed. Further, they stated that having evaluated the evidence, the Easter Commission found no evidence of any one of the Bathiudeens having aided or abetted the suicide bombers in the Easter Sunday bombings. "Their arrest without any justifiable material is in violation of the rule of law," the statement concluded.