Sri Lankan court sentences 5 captive Indian fishermen to death, MEA promises to file appeal in higher court

Five Indian fishermen were awarded capital punishment by Sri Lankan court on Thursday. They were arrested back in 2011 by the Sri Lankan navy.

The charges against them are of drug smuggling. They have up to November 14 to apply to the Sri Lankan Supreme Court. The five Indians are among a group of eight people sentenced to death by the high court in Colombo. They had been arrested on a boat in the seas off northern Jaffna's Delft islet.

The High Court judge Preethi Padman Surasena passed judgement on the five Indians and three Sri Lankans for involvement in heroin trafficking between India and Sri Lanka in 2011. However, the Indian government, which has been pursuing their case for the last four years, maintains that it has done due diligence and found them to be innocent.India has already officially reacted to this shocking incident. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin has tweeted that India'a High Commission in Colombo will get in touch with lawyers to file an appeal in the Supreme Court. 

Tensions have existed between India and Sri Lanka regarding the issue of detention of fishermen for a very long time. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has taken a very tough stance in this matter and has written several letters to the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well to ask them to pressure Sri Lankan authorities to free fishermen detained in the country.

This new incident has the potential to become a major flashpoint between the two nations. 

With PTI inputs