COLOMBO : Fort Magistrate Priyantha Liyanage ordered former minister Rishad Bathiudeen to be kept in remand custody under the PTA Act till the case against him was concluded and the hearing was fixed for August 18.
The order was issued by the Fort Magistrate’s Court when Parliamentarian Bathiudeen was produced in court on Tuesday as the seventh suspect over a case linked to the 2019 Easter attacks which took place at a Hotel in Colombo.
MP Bathiudeen has been detained by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for over 100 days since his arrest in 2020.
The parliamentarian and his brother were arrested on April 24 for allegedly aiding and abetting the suicide bombers who perpetrated the deadly terror attacks on April 21, 2019.
The former minister was taken into custody at his residence in Bauddhaloka Mawatha in Colombo while his brother Riyaj Bathiudeen was apprehended in Wellawatte area.
They were initially interrogated under a 72-hour detention order obtained by the CID under the provisions of Article 6(1) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
The team of lawyers which appeared for the former minister included N.M.Shaheed, Rushdie Habib, Mohamed Ameer Ali and Musharaff Mutanabi.
