First anniversary of the assassination of Gerald Perera;
On November 21 2004, Gerald Perera was assassinated while riding on a bus at noon. He was an employee at the Colombo Harbour who was pursuing a case against several officers of the Wattala Police Station for torturing him. One of the accused against whom he was to testify in a week’s time chauffeured the person who shot him. After three days he died of his injuries.
There was an unprecedented public uproar against the cold-blooded and calculated murder by several persons who were “law enforcement officers”. Due to intense local and international outrage, serious inquiries were conducted into the matter. Several police officers were arrested and later charged for the murder of Gerald Perera. Some of the officers reportedly confessed to murder to a magistrate, stating that they murdered Gerald Perera out of fear of goal sentences if the torture case proceeded and he gave evidence. The Attorney General recently announced indictments against these officers at the Negombo High Court, and stated that some officers have been made Crown witnesses.
However, the trial at the High Court has not commenced and seems unlikely to begin soon. The trial concerning Judge Ambepitya, who was assassinated two days before Gerald Perera’s death, ended several months ago. Judge Ambepitiya’s trial was a trial at bar and the case was heard on a daily basis until its completion. The murder of Gerald Perera, who was a torture victim and a witness, has not been given that importance by the Attorney General or by the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, who has the final say on whether a case should go before a trial at bar. The criterion for deciding which cases go before trial at bar has never been laid down. If the criterion is public interest, then Gerald Perera’s case should surely be processed in the same manner as that of Judge Ambepitiya. Nothing could be of more public interest that to protect the rights of witnesses and victims to testify in court.
The killing of a witness is among the worst attacks on the administration of justice. Law enforcement officers killing a person they have previously tortured is cruelty of the worst type. The initial act of torture based on mistaken identity was so severe that Gerald Perera suffered renal failure and remained unconscious for over two weeks. When this person sought justice, he was murdered. The justice system in Sri Lanka has been deplorably slow and apathetic in responding to this most heinous crime.
Meanwhile, Gerald Perera’s widow and have received no compensation from the Sri Lankan government. Within a few days of Judge Ambepititya’s assassination, then President Chandrika Kumaratunga sent 5 million rupees’ compensation to his widow from presidential funds. However, the same president did not even write a simple letter of sympathy to the widow and family of Gerald Perera, despite many appeals made locally and internationally. Once again, public interest and legal obligation seem unlikely to be the factors determining such payments, for then there would be no basis for justifying such double standards. We hope the newly elected president will rectify this matter and end the continuing injustice to the family of a torture victim.
In Gerald Perera’s case, besides normal delay in beginning trial, it will drag on for several years because only a very small portion of evidence is taken in court each day, and the next day in court could be months later.
All these factors of neglect regarding the case of Gerald Perera will only encourage those who wish to pursue similar acts of brutality and inhumanity on citizens who demand justice and respect for their dignity. Delays on the part of the Attorney General, judges and others shockingly undermine public confidence in justice. It is not rare that we hear from litigants as well as from lawyers that justice is dead in Sri Lanka. A former vice president of the international court of justice has diagnosed the rule of law in the country as in the lowest ebb, and has called for a national awakening. However, we hear ordinary citizens throughout the country bitterly lamenting the degenerating administration of justice in the country.
When people had lost faith in justice, Gerald Perera was one of the few with the courage to fight violations of dignity by torture, and to demand justice. The Sri Lankan state failed him. However, the Sri Lankan public and the international community did respond to his death. This response must be sustained until justice is done. That is the only way that the memory of such a person can be kept, and others shielded from a similar fate.
The Asian Human Rights Commission calls upon all parties once again to exert all possible pressure to expedite the trial for Gerald Perera, and also demands that the government discharge its obligations to the victim’s family
