CJ questioned as to why the IDP is detained if he was released before

The court ordered the Attorney General (AG) to release Selvan Anton Jude, who is suffering from an eye disease, if there is no evidence to file charges against him.

A three-member bench chaired by Chief Justice Asoka de Silva made the order after considering a fundamental rights petition by the disabled internally displaced person (IDP).

It is the first such order by the court on suspected LTTE members.

The petitioner says that the court acquitted and released him, in 1998, from three separate cases filed against him on charges related to supporting the Tamil Tigers.

Detainees 'tortured'

Thereafter he has lived together with his wife in the LTTE-held Vanni and was made an IDP at the height of the war in 2009.

While living in Chettikulam IDP camp, police Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) arrested him and detained in Pompamadu camp citing the three previous cases filed against him, the petitioner told the courts.

A counsel appearing for the state admitted at the court that the suspect was earlier released by the court in three separate charges.

The Supreme Court ordered the AG to inform the court of possibilities to release the suspect when the case is taken for further hearing on 04 August.

There are over 10,000 Tamil Tiger suspects currently in detention.

In letters and phone calls to the BBC, some detainess said thery were ill-treated and torturted but the government rejected the accusations.