Right to fair trial

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that when Ms. Warnakulasuriya Tresa Dorin Marcus tried to make a complaint to the officers of the Pamunugama Police Station that her son-in-law was in possession of an illegal weapon the officers sided with the culprit and verbally and physically abused her. Working under […]

[RE: AHRC-UAC-075-2011: BANGLADESH: Rapid Action Battalion shoots innocent college student, causing permanent disability, and now threatens sympathizers with extra-judicial killing Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding repeated attempts by the state machinery to brand a college student named Limon Hossain as a criminal, after he was shot point-blank and […]

The people of Bangladesh are scared. Incidents of abduction by plain-clothed people, who often claim to be law-enforcing agents of the country, are ongoing, without any indication of being on the want. The people of Bangladesh are scared because their brothers and sons are disappearing. The stories of disappearances are being exposed by the media […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Sivapalan Pradeepan (28) of Batticaloa was arrested shortly after his brother-in-law by officers of the Terrorist Investigation Department. After being assured that he would be released after a statement was taken from him Sivapalan was sent to the CID offices where he […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that Mr. Mam Sonando (70) was arrested from his home on 15 July 2012 by the police and was formally charged on the following day by Phnom Penh Municipal Court. The main charges against Mr. Mam Sonando include plotting secessionist movements in Kratie province, inciting […]

The Chief Minister of West Bengal is once again in the news. This time the minister is critiqued for her comments on judicial corruption. However, if truth is the best defence, and if such a defence is bona fide, then in public interest none can blame the minister for her ‘expressing opinion.’ In fact, it […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Alexander Thayaparan was abducted by carders of the LTTE in 1991 and was only released after he lost his leg. At the closing of the civil war he and his family attempted to flee to safety but were arrested by the Sri […]

The government is again planning to change the criminal justice mainframe of the country. Again, the ruse is that of justice to the people and national security. The proposal is open; its true purpose clandestine. If the 2007 report of the Committee on National Policy on Criminal Justice, chaired by Dr. N.R. Madhava Menon, is […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the local administration of the two districts of Punjab province and the owners of kiln factories are using the accusation of committing blasphemy against a human rights organization and its staff for raising their voices against bonded labour. They are also demanding wage […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM concerning the indefinite detention of a person after the completion of his sentence in Bangladesh. The victim in the case, Mr. Sahab alias Sahabuddin Seikh is a resident of New Sikarpur village under the jurisdiction of Murutia Police Station in Nadia district, […]

Basil Fernando The interview of the Defense Secretary Mr. Gotabaya Rajapakse with the editor of the Sunday Leader on the airlifting of a dog deserves comment not because of anything surprising contained in the interview. Its importance lies in its banality. It reveals something that has come to be quite common and ordinary in the […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that an attempt was made to abduct Mr. Shantha Wijesuriya, a journalist for Lanka-e-news, Sri Lanka’s most widely read online news publication. Shortly after the publication of a controversial article in which Mr. Wijesuriya highlighted the link between a known criminal and the Rajapaksa family, […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that nearly six months after the arrest and detention of Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie, a human rights activist laid with fabricated murder charges, the court has not commence the trial. The court suspended the proceedings due to its own failure to conclude the victim’s petition […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 16-year old girl was sexually assaulted but because police officers have a connection to the perpetrator, they are refusing to investigate the case and secure protection for the victim and her family. On 12 April 2012, Mr. Gunatunga cut down and stole a […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from MASUM concerning the murder of 21-year-old Jiarul Sardar on 10 June 2012 in yet another case of Border Security Forces (BSF) brutality in West Bengal, India. Torture, extrajudicial killings and acts of impunity are features of everyday life for Indian people living near […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. K. A. Somarathna, a businessman, filed a complaint with the Senior Superintendent of Police, (SSP) when a water pump and other goods were stolen from his business construction site by a number of police officers attached to the Mundalama Police Station. Two […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Miss S.H. Thushari Dilrukshi of Dikwella in the Matara District was illegally arrested by police officers attached to the Dikwella Police Station. She had earlier made a complaint of sexual harassment by a youth who also attacked and injured her father. Rather than […]

Dear friends, Rizana Nafeek of Muthur, Trincomalee in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka left to Saudi Arabia as a domestic helper when she was 17 years old. She became a victim of a recruitment agent who altered her date of birth in her passport, making her as 23-years old and was sent to Saudi […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a doctor who helped the American forces to locate Osama Bin Laden, the former chief of the Al-Qaida terrorist group in Pakistan, was illegally arrested and tortured to confess that he was working as a spy for the USA. He was held incommunicado […]

The Asian Human Rights Commission is shocked by the total disregard for fair trial by the Phnom Penh municipal court, which summarily sentenced 13 women activists who engaged in peaceful demonstrations demanding proper demarcation of their land boundaries in the Boeung Kak lake area. Photo: Children crying after their mothers, who are detained inside the […]