Claim: Minister Bimal Rathnayake stated that political prisoners can’t be released.
Fact: The Minister stated that the political prisoners can be released, the move cannot take place immediately and that due procedures have to be followed.
The release of Tamil political prisoners who were arrested during the Civil War has been a major topic of discussion in Sri Lanka, especially among Tamil communities for a long time. The current NPP government and President Anura Kumar Dissanayake have also made statements indicating their readiness to take steps toward the release of Tamil political prisoners during the parliamentary election campaigns, and it was also one of the key points in the manifesto.
In this context, social media posts claiming that NPP Minister Bimal Rathnayake stated that the government cannot release the political prisoners, is being widely circulated. Users claim that he made the remark while speaking to the media in Vavuniya recently.
A user on X posted the image of the Vavuniya press meet along with a caption in Tamil: ‘அரசியல் கைதிகளை விடுவிக்க முடியாது – பேரினவாத சிங்கள அமைச்சர்,’ which reads ‘Political prisoners cannot be released – Racist Sinhala Minister.’
We also found several posts with clickbait headlines and thumbnails carrying the same claim, while giving different details within. These posts can be seen here, here, and here.
Based on the controversial nature of this claim, we decided to check its veracity.
Factcheck / Verification
We first conducted a keyword search for the terms ‘Tamil political prisoners’ and ‘Bimal Rathnayake’ and came across mainstream media reports in Tamil, highlighting the Minister’s remark from the press conference.
According to these reports, which can be seen here and here, the minister has said that while it is possible to release the political prisoners, the move cannot take place immediately.
Since the news reports were only covered by Tamil media channels with Tamil voiceovers, we did a Google reverse image search on the keyframes of the minister’s press meet and found the full length video of the press conference posted by the “Vanni Voice” Facebook page on March 29, 2025, with the caption in Tamil reading, “Is the release of political prisoners possible? Bimal Rathnayake – Certainly, it’s possible.”
Responding to a question about the release of political prisoners, Rathnayake responded, “Releasing the political prisoners is possible, and it’s also in our election manifesto. We will fulfill our promises. It has only been four and a half months since we established this government, but we will surely do justice to the prisoners. Also, we have been working to release lands occupied by various government bodies and other institutions. We need to follow certain procedures to achieve that and fulfill our promises.”
To this, the journalist is further heard asking if the President could use his powers to immediately grant the release. In response, the Minister clarified, “Yes, the President can use his powers, but he too has certain procedures and limitations.”
In addition to this, we found a Facebook post by a journalist from the north, Manoj Sritharan, who raised these questions at the press meet held in Vavuniya. Posting a clarification regarding these misleading claims, Sritharan wrote, “The minister clearly stated that while they (the political prisoners) can be released, it would take time due to certain procedures that are due to be followed… Since this is an election period, it is unclear whether this is disinformation deliberately spread to create an impact in the election, or misinformation shared due to confusion caused by the Q&A being in English. As a journalist, and as the person who asked the specific question at the press meet, I have the responsibility to verify and clarify this.”
Conclusion
The posts claiming that NPP Minister Bimal Rathnayake stated that political prisoners cannot be released, are not true. The Minister stated that while the political prisoners can be released, it cannot happen immediately and that there are certain procedures involved.
Result: False
Our Sources
News article published by Virakesari.lk on March 29, 2025.
News video posted on the News First Tamil YouTube channel, dated March 29, 2025.
News video posted by the Vanni Voice Facebook Page, dated March 29, 2025.
Facebook post by Manoj Sritharan, dated March 30, 2025.
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