The Sri Lankan government’s Ministry of Defence website published the following caption with a photograph of a President’s Counsel, Romesh de Silva PC.
President’s Counsel Romesh de Silva, Mr. M A Sumanthiran, Mr. Viran Korea, Ms. Lilanthi De Silva and Chamaine Gunarathne are the team of lawyers who regularly appear for the detainees charged with terrorist activity.
On October 22, 2008, a letter was widely distributed by a group calling itself the Mahason Balakaya (Battalion), which published this threatening message for those lawyers who appear for suspected terrorists:
In the future all those represent the interests of the terrorist will be subject to the same fate that these terrorist mete out to our innocent people.
Obviously, the Mahason Balakaya is acting with the acquiescence of the government. The publication of the names of these lawyers in this manner at the Ministry of Defence website exposes them to death threats and other serious consequences as threatened by the Mahason Balakaya.
In previous statements the AHRC has strongly asserted, not only the right but also the duty of lawyers to represent anyone before courts of law. To forbid lawyers from representing persons before courts is to negate the very meaning of ‘courts’.
On November 19, 2008, we wrote:
To attack a lawyer for his professional work is to attack the legal profession as a whole. This profession need not exist if it does not do what this profession is expected to do. Expecting a lawyer not to appear for a terrorist is similar to asking a medical surgeon not to operate on a terrorist who needs medical care.
Please see the full statement, SRI LANKA: There is nothing funny about lawyers being named as traitors for doing their jobs as lawyers; getting closer to cannibalism?:http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2008statements/1772/
In response to a similar publication at the Ministry of Defence website naming some Tamil lawyers who had been instructing attorneys in fundamental rights applications before the Supreme Court there had been several protests to President Mahinda Rajapaskse himself. However, no action has been taken by the government to eliminate such attacks by the Ministry of Defence by such publications in their website. The repetition of the same with the naming of more lawyers demonstrates that these actions are sanctioned by the government.
The issue that was posed by the letter from Mahason Balakaya (October 22), a letter blaming some Tamil instructing attorneys for filing fundamental rights applications for alleged terrorists (published in November and modified on December 15) and the present publication published on December 23, are serious threats to the existence of the court system itself, the possibility of fair trial and the legal profession that is allowed to act within the scope of their professional obligations.
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka has shown some response to the threats to lawyers in recent months by the adoption and publication of several resolutions. To name a few, the resolution to call for inquiries into threats to the lawyer who represented the assassinated Sugath Nishanta Fernando of Negombo, a lengthy resolution on the grenade attack on the residence of Mr. J.C. Weliamuna and the inhumane treatment of Mr. D.W.C. Mohotti at the Bambilipitya Police Station. However, there are no reports of any action on the first publication against the lawyers who were instructing attorneys in the fundamental rights applications. The present attack on a President’s Counsel and several of the lawyers should awaken the leadership of the Bar Association to the very threat that the legal profession faces in Sri Lanka for its valid and justifiable existence. If the partisan political agenda of some in the leadership of the Bar Association lead them to ignore this threat the profession will suffer irreparable damage.
Mr. Vasudewa Nanayakkara, on December 10, wrote to the President of Sri Lanka protesting against the attack on lawyers by the Ministry of Defence and strongly urged for the elimination of such attacks. His letter was published in several media channels. However, the opposition political parties, the trade union movement and other civil society organisations, showed no adequate interest in the attacks on lawyers which, if successful will virtually destroy the possibility of the protection of any of the civil rights of Sri Lankans within the framework of the law. It is hoped that this latest attack will awake the Sri Lankan opposition political parties and all movements within Sri Lanka and also all civil society organisations to the enormous threat that the country’s legal system is exposed to now by the executive, using the pretext of anti terrorism for their own purposes of destroying the concept of the separation of powers in the country. Despite of lip service being paid to the separation of powers, such separation cannot exist without a judiciary that is capable of protecting the individual through the law. Attacks on fair trial and the legal profession make the very existence of the courts a meaningless affair. It makes the government one that is run entirely by the executive.
We urge all Sri Lankans as well as those concerned with human rights globally, to study and comprehend the attacks on the independent legal profession that is taking place in Sri Lanka and the wider objectives of such attacks which is to destroy the very possibility of the rule of law of and democracy within the country.
For further information please see a pamphlet relating to the attack on Mr. J.C. Weliamuna house at:
http://www.ahrchk.net/pub/mainfile.php/weliamuna/
The text of Mr. Vasudewa Nanayakkara, letter on December 10, may be found at:
http://www.ahrchk.net/pr/mainfile.php/2008mr/580/
The print copy of the booklet Sri Lanka, In defence of the legal progression may be obtained from the AHRC
