On 9 February 2011, the next hearing in the case of the disappearance of human rights defender Mr Pattani Razeek will be heard in Puttalam Magistrate's Court in Sri Lanka. Pattani Razeek is managing trustee of the Community Trust Fund (CTF) and a member of the Executive Committee of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA). His whereabouts remain unknown since his disappearance one year ago, on 11 February 2010.

Further Information

On 10 February 2011, the final hearing with regard to an anticipatory bail application for a named suspect in the human rights defender's disappearance case will be held at Puttalam High Court. There is reportedly evidence to suggest that Mr Shabdeen Nowshadh, who has been associated with the CTF and a close acquaintance of the Minister of Industry and Commerce, placed phone calls using Pattani Razeek's mobile phone SIM card following his disappearance. Shabdeen Nowshadh, however, is currently at large.

On 16 February 2010 some of Pattani Razeek's phone records were released by the mobile phone company and they revealed that a number of short phone calls had been made on the evening of the 11th of February, the day of his disappearance. There were no further calls made from that time until an unanswered call was made to a CTF driver on 15 February. When the driver attempted to return the call, there was no answer. On the same day, a text message was received by a family member from Pattani Razeek's phone stating that he was in Polonnaruwa and would be home soon. There has been no contact since.

On 11 February 2010, Pattani Razeek had been travelling with other staff members of CTF, in Polonnaruwa, North-Central province of Sri Lanka, when their vehicle was intercepted by a white van. Pattani Razeek disembarked the vehicle he was travelling in and approached the white van. A conversation took place in Arabic between Pattani Razeek and the occupants of the van. Following this discussion Pattani Razeek returned to his colleagues and informed them that he would be travelling in the white van as far as the Eastern provincial town of Valaichchenai and would meet up with them there. However, he has not been seen since then.

Two further hypotheses have been put forward with regard to the disapperarance; the first came in the form of a statement, from a public official, that Pattani Razeek was at some stage an intermediary in the transfer of funds from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and is currently in the custody of the Ministry of Defence. The second theory emanated from an article in a Sinhala newspaper, Lankadeepa, on 2 July 2010 in which it was reported that the police stated that Pattani Razeek had been abducted by an extremist Muslim group.

Front Line believes the disappearance of Pattani Razeek is directly related to his legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights. Front Line is gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Pattani Razeek.

Front Line urges the authorities in Sri Lanka to:

1. Take urgent measures to ascertain the whereabouts of human rights defender Pattani Razeek and guarantee his physical and psychological integrity;

2. Take active measures to establish responsibility for the disappearance of Pattani Razeek through, inter alia, the apprehension and interrogation of all possible suspects, including Mr Shabdeen Nowshadh, with a view to identifying those responsible and bringing them to justice in accordance with international standards;

3. Guarantee in all circumstances that human rights defenders in Sri Lanka are able to carry out their legitimate and peaceful human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restriction