Colombo (AFP) - A Sri Lankan court on Monday ordered the release of a lawyer arrested over his alleged ties to the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and held for nearly two years on charges rights groups say lacked evidence.
Hejaaz Hizbullah was arrested in April 2020 on suspicion of being linked to the devastating series of attacks on churches and hotels that left 279 people dead.
But after prosecutors failed to provide evidence of his involvement in the attacks, blamed on a local jihadist group, he was instead charged with inciting "racial hatred" under Sri Lanka's expansive Prevention of Terrorism Act.
The Court of Appeal said "draconian elements" of the law had been misused to keep Hizbullah detained and noted that parliament had begun a process to reform the act.
Monday's decision to grant bail comes just weeks before his case was due to be discussed at a UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, according to diplomats.
Dozens of rights groups have campaigned for Hizbullah's freedom, and his detention has been highlighted by the European Parliament, which has censured Sri Lanka over its rights record.
Human Rights Watch said five other men connected to Hizbullah were detained after his arrest and forced to concoct evidence against him.
"Lawyers said that some of these men allege that they were tortured, and others that they were threatened and pressured to give false testimony against Hizbullah," the New York-based rights group said in a Monday report.
Eran Wickramaratne of Sri Lanka's opposition SJB party called for the outright repeal of the "much abused" law that was used to detain him.
"We must ensure there will be no more Prisoners of Conscience like Hejaaz," he wrote on Twitter.
Hizbullah was a vocal advocate of Sri Lanka's minority Muslim community.
He earned the ire of the island nation's ruling family after successfully challenging an effort to return former president Mahinda Rajapaksa to power during a constitutional crisis in 2018.
The following year, Mahinda was appointed prime minister after his younger brother Gotabaya won presidential elections.
UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called for "renewed attention" to the intimidation of journalists, lawyers and activists in Sri Lanka after the Rajapaksa clan returned to power.
