SRI LANKA: Young Tamil complainant in a bribery case against a police officer faces attempts on his life and is in hiding

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a complainant of a bribery case (No.: 50600/01 in the Chief Magistrate’s Court of Colombo), received death threats from the police officers attached to the Hatton Police Station. The complainant made a complaint against the IP Wijesuriya of the said police station on 6 November 2007 to the Bribery Commission of Sri Lanka. Later he was threatened by the same officer and on many occasions complainant was threatened with his life. Further, the police have filled two fabricated cases against him. One case was settled and concluded and the other is pending. Presently the complainant is in hiding and his life is in danger. The case is yet another illustration of the exceptional collapse of the rule of law in the country. 

CASE NARRATIVE: 

According to the information received by the Asian Human Rights Commission Mr. Devarathnam Yogendra (28) of Shanon Estate, Hatton is the complainant in a bribery case number: 50600/01 in the Chief Magistrate’s Court Colombo, against IP Wijesuriya of the Hatton Police Station, who has been indicted on a charge of obtaining bribes. This charge has been filed on the basis of a complaint made by Yogendra on November 6, 2007 and the police officer was arrested a decoy from the Bribery Commission immediately after accepting a bribe. Ever since the arrest of this police officer Devarathnam Yogendra has faced several attempts on his life, according to several complaints that he has made to the police, including the Inspector General of Police and also many other authorities, including the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. Yogendra has also complained that several fabricated charges have been filed, one of which was dismissed by the Magistrate on 11 January, 2011. Another such case is scheduled to be taken up on 1 March, 2011.

Four days after the first case was dismissed by the court Yogendra faced another threat to his life. Following are the details of this incident:

On the 9 December 2007 SI Silva has threatened Yogendra when he was on his way to Hatton from Talawakelle.

On the 1 April 2009 Yogendra was arrested with fabricated charges, produced and remanded until the 21t April 2009. (Case Number: B/296/09) (38152). this case was settled on the 11 January 2011.

Once again Yogendra was arrested on the 1 December 2010 on the chargers that he had weapons in his possession. (Case Number: B/902/2010). This case is pending in Hatton Magistrate Court and the next hearing will be on the 1 March 2011.

On 15 January, 2011 on the Thai Pongal day morning around 1.30 a.m. about 5 police officers in police t-shirts had come to Yogendra’s house and woke him up and said that they needed to question him. When his father has asked the reason for his arrest, the police officers have said that there is a complaint against Yogendra and they need to question him. Then they have taken Yogendra, walking towards a white van with tinted glasses and pushed him in to the van. It was not a police jeep. It happened to be a rainy day and there was noise of crackers being lighted to celebrate Pongal.

Inside the van he was blindfolded and handcuffed and they have taken him about 200 meters into a lonely place where there was a cemetery. When he was taken out of the van, the cloth that blindfolded him was removed and Yogendra was asked to kneel down. Then he was threaten and told that they would kill him if he acted against the police. Yogendra was then assaulted on his shoulders and his body and this stage Yogendra has identified a police officer by the name of sergeant Sarath. Yogendra told him that if he is killed that the whole world will know that the Hatton police officers had done it. Further he told, the police officer “you are Sergeant Sarath and I know you” at this stage police officers were drinking, laughing and making merry. After this they further assaulted him and took out a gun which they fired in the air. Then they have shown him the cemetery and said that he would be soon be there if he continued to act against the police officers. Having kept him for more than one hour he was threatened repeatedly. Then the handcuffs were removed and the officers left in the van.

Yogendra has collected 2 bullets casings from the ground and also a rain coat which was thrown out by him while he was in the van to prove that they were from Hatton police.

Yogendra is now afraid to go home and is now in hiding.

This is one more case of a person who is being hunted by the police due to complaints made by him to the Bribery Commission and other authorities. Sugath Nishanta Fernando from Negombo was assassinated after making complaints against the police regarding torture and bribery. At the time he was killed several police officers were being charged by the Bribery Commission and were also made respondents in a torture case. Earlier Gerard Perera, who was pursuing his complaint against torture by several officers from the Wattala Police Station was assassinated while he was traveling on a bus. A case is before the Negombo High Court relating to the murder of Gerard Perera in which the accused is a police officer and an accomplice who was earlier charged under the CAT Act, No. 22 of 1994 for torturing him.

Devarathnam Yogendra is now in hiding, afraid for his life. In a 53 minute taped interview he described to the Asian Human Rights Commission the series of attempts that were allegedly made on his life which he narrowly escaped.

The AHRC calls on the Inspector General of Police and the police authorities as well as the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission and the National Police Commission to investigate the complaints of Devarathnam Yogendra and also to provide him protection.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: 

The Asian Human Rights Commission has reported innumerable cases of arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and extra judicial killings cases of citizens at the hands of the police which is illegal under international and local law and which have taken place at different police stations in the country over the past few years. The Asian Human Rights Commission has observed that the Sri Lankan police have used torture as an instrument to terrorize innocent persons and harass the public. Further, the country’s police are implementing a policy of eliminating criminals by killing them after arresting them without producing them to the court of law.

Further, Article 13(4) of the Constitution of the country clearly stated that, “No person shall be punished with death or imprisonment except by order of a competent court, made in accordance with procedure established by law. The arrest, holding in custody, detention or other deprivation of personal liberty of a person, pending investigation or trial, shall not constitute punishment.” Further article 13 (5) guarantees the right of presumption of innocence until being proven guilty.

Furthermore, Sri Lanka has signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Nevertheless the lack of protection offered to those who are willing to take cases against abusive police officers and the state authorities, means that the law is under-used continues to be employed as a tool by the police to harass people. This not only takes a long-term toll on the victim and his or her family, but on society as a whole, by the undermining of civilian respect for the law and encouraging impunity.

Furthermore, the Asian Human Rights Commission has continuously exposed the way the witness and the victims are getting harassed and on some occasions even killed to suppress the justice. Furthermore we have urged the State of Sri Lanka to adopt a law for the protection of witness protection.

SUGGESTED ACTION: 
Please send a letter to the authorities listed below expressing your concern about this case and requesting an immediate investigation into the allegations death threats by the police perpetrators, and the prosecution of those proven to be responsible under the criminal law of the country. The officers involved must also be subjected to internal investigations for the breach of the department orders as issued by the police department.

The AHRC has also written a separate letter to the Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions on this regard.

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