• They had noticed Bathiudeen talking on the phone on Wednesday
• The former minister had thrown the phone out of the cell window no sooner he saw the Jailors  

By Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya

The Prisons Officers found a mobile phone in the possession of former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen who is currently in remand custody at the Magazine Prison.

Prisons Spokesman Chandana Ekanayake said when the Chief Jailor and another prison guard were approaching the cell where Rishad Bathiudeen was being held, they had noticed that Bathiudeen was talking on the phone on Wednesday. 

The former minister had thrown the phone away out of the cell window no sooner he saw the Jailors noticing him using the phone. However, the mobile phone was retrieved by the Prison Officers and had handed it over to the Intelligence Unit for further investigations, the spokesman said.

Commissioner Ekanayake said it was prohibited for an inmate to keep a mobile phone in his/her possession under the Prisons Ordinance and therefore the MP will be produced before a Prison Tribunal shortly. Bathiudeen was arrested and remanded for aiding and abetting the suicide bombers of the Easter Sunday attacks.
Earlier, the Prisons Department had also initiated an investigation into the alleged death threats made by MP Bathiudeen to a Prison Doctor at the Prison Hospital.