Three Tamils have been acquitted from charges of attempting to kill the then top Pakistani diplomat in Colombo in 2006.
They remained in remand custody for more than 15 years before Colombo high court judge Mahen Weeraman released them on 10 November.
The judge found the 25 counts against them filed by the attorney general had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Yogaraja Nirojan, Subramaniam Surendra Raja and Kanagaratnam Adityan stood accused of plotting to bomb a motorcade of high commissioner Bazir Ali Mohamed on 14 August 2006.
They were taken into custody in the same year, but the case against them started only in 2012.
After their release, convener of the national movement for freedom of political prisoners Fr. Marimuttu Sathivel urged the people to pressurize rulers into abolishing the PTA that denied the three men 15 of their youth.