Police have been accused of torturing a Tamil writer to force a confession out of him as he was kept more than 16 years in detention under the PTA.
Sivalingam Aruran had been arrested on a charge of aiding an attempt on the life of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, when he was the defence secretary.
His lawyer, K.V. Thavarasa, told journalists that following a 14 year investigation, Colombo high court judge N. Marasinghe on March 02 rejected the confession obtained from his client.
An engineering graduate of Moratuwa University, Aruran was awarded as the best Tamil independent novelist at the annual state literary awards last October.
He is one of the five accused in the case in connection with the suicide bombing that targeted Rajapaksa at Kollupitiya on December 01, 2006 which killed three Army officers.
The deputy solicitor general had claimed a confession purportedly made by Aruran in the Tamil language was voluntary, and in it he had admitted to having aided in the attack.
The case will be heard again on April 03.
