Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Member of Parliament (MP) Eran Wickramaratne speaking at a ceremony held to mark the International Human Right Day on December 17 said that Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) should be reformed to minimize arbitrary detention, reports Colombo Page. He said “The present government is using the PTA to silence calls for justice from minority communities. It has been used as a weapon to arbitrarily detain our own citizens despite the lack of substantial evidence. The PTA has been used to arbitrarily detain and torture prisoners since it was introduced. It needs to be reformed not to just bring it in line with the international conventions that we have ratified, but also to bring it in line with our own Constitution. There are three main reforms that we need to do consider. Reduce the maximum detention period from 18 months detention to 30 days. Produce a suspect before a judge within 72 hours so that the judge decides on the condition of the detention · Confessions to a police officer must not be admissible in a court of law.”