Lanka-e-News reported today, December 5, 2008, that a Supreme Court bench consisting of the Chief Justice and Justices Shirani Thilakawardane and K. Sripavan, criticised the Attorney General’s Department for having filed false charges on fake laws. The report stated
The Chief Justice thus criticized the Attorney General’s Department suspending two crime charges framed in Colombo High Court against the Chairman of the company published ‘Mawbima’ newspaper Tiran Alles and the director of the company Dushyantha Basnayaka.
The order of the Supreme Court came when considering the petitions filed by Tiran Alles and Dushyantha Basnayaka. The Chief Justice is quoted as stating that that the Attorney General’s Department is attempting to frame charges in some way against Alles to make him suffer and to damage his goodwill, going against the reliefs granted to him covering to false laws.
The issue of filing false charges is a matter of grave concern as filing of fabricated cases by the police, and sometimes also by the Attorney General’s Department, is one of the serious problems affecting the lives of innocent persons in Sri Lanka. It can also be said that the case filed against J.S. Tissainayagam is also a false charge based on fake laws. The manipulation of the emergency law and the anti terrorism law provides opportunities for the state to fabricate charges against anyone it wishes to persecute through fake prosecutions. Fake or otherwise, persons so charged can be deprived of bail and remain in detention for long periods and within the restricted interpretation of the law, when it comes to these types of cases, they can even be pronounced guilty by a court and spend long years in prison. Many of those persons do not have the wealth required to fight these cases and added to that, witnesses can be intimidated so that even a fake charge can be proven as true by manipulation.
The Supreme Court making a pronouncement on this matter is of great importance. However, given the widespread nature of this practice and how deeply entrenched the practice is within the criminal justice framework of Sri Lanka, much more needs to be done if the horror that can be caused to individuals through such prosecutions is to be eliminated.
The Penal Code makes the fabrication of charges and making of false accusations either by civilians or by those who represent state agencies crimes. The crime carries the punishment that is the same to the perpetrator of the false charge as to the accused if the charges were to be true. For example, if a person accused of a particular crime, if proven can be sentenced to a life sentence, the perpetrator who knowingly filed the false charge can be punished with the same sentence.
One of the relevant provisions of the Penal Code is as follows:
False charge of offence made with intent to injure.
208. Whoever, with intent to cause injury to any person, institutes or causes to be instituted any criminal proceeding against that person, or falsely charges any person with having committed an offence, knowing that there is no just or lawful ground for such proceeding or charge against that person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both: and if such criminal proceeding be instituted on a false charge of an offence punishable with death.-or imprisonment for seven years or upwards, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.
In this instance it is the Attorney General’s Department itself that has been accused of engaging in filing false charges on fake laws. It is an accusation that is as grave as can be. It should not be allowed to pass purely by way of a comment from the court. The matter of how, why and who was engaged in this violation of the law should be investigated and prosecuted if equality before the law is a doctrine that still operates in Sri Lanka.
It is for the government, the opposition, the media and civil society organisations not to let this matter pass without serious scrutiny followed by action that is commensurate with the gravity of the wrong.
