SRI LANKA: An innocent man has been detained more than six months without being produced before any court or charged

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Jesuthasan Tennisan Leon (27) has been detained in Boossa Detention Camp for more than six months without being produced before any court by the state authorities. Leon was abducted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2001, a period when many villagers in his location also faced the same fate. Leon was forced to undergo training by the LTTE.

In early 2009 he was able to escape the LTTE and returned to his parents and found employment. However, after his return he was followed by the officers attached to the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID). Later he learned that these officers gone to the Arpico office where he was working. Leon was tortured in custody and has been held in Boossa detention Centre for six months without being produced before a court of law or charged. This case is yet another illustration of the exceptional collapse of the rule of law in the country.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Mr. Jesuthasan Tennisan Leon (27) who holds National Identity Card Number: NIC 851281959V, of Aripputhurai, Murunkan, in the Mannar District has been detained in Boossa Detention Camp for more than six months without being produced before any court by the state authorities.

Leon was living with his parents. He has three brothers and three sisters and is the youngest in the family. His father was a businessman and his mother a housewife. One of his sisters is a Christian nun, affiliated to a congregation of the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka.

After Leon left school having completed his GCE Ordinary Level exam he was abducted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2001. Many villagers in his location also faced the same fate where one or more children from each family were abducted and later forcefully recruited by the LTTE. Leon was forced to undergo training by the LTTE.

However in early 2009 he was able to escape the LTTE and returned to his parents. Fearing that the LTTE would abduct him once again he went to Qatar for employment. After he returned to the country in May of 2010 he joined the Arpico Company in Colombo and worked as a sales representative. However after his return he was followed by the officers attached to the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID). Later he learned that these officers gone to the Arpico office where he was working.

On 18 November 2011 Leon was arrested by the TID officers while he was in Nallur Jaffna at a house where he was boarding. He was then taken to Vavuniya and was detained for a week at a police compound. Then from Vavuniya he was taken to the 2nd floor of a TID building in Colombo. Leon was severely tortured while at the TID branch in Colombo. After a week of detention and questioning he was taken to Boossa Detention Center where he is presently detained.

Even after six months of detention the TID officers have not filed any charges against Leon and neither has he been told the reason for his arrest. At the time of writing Leon has not been produced in any court of law.

Leon and his family member suspect that the TID officers are trying to get money from him as he returned from Qatar. Therefore they urge the state authorities to either immediately release Leon or charge him so that he can stand trial and prove his innocence. Leon seeks justice against the continuous violations of his rights.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

The Asian Human Rights Commission has reported innumerable cases of torturing innocent by the Sri Lankan police which are illegal under international and local law which have taken place at different Police Station in the country over the past few years.

Asian Human Rights Commission received several hundreds of cases where the innocents have been illegally arrested and detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act No. 48 of 1979 (PTA). This act vehemently used by the state authorities to mass scale arrests and detained people indefinitely without producing them before a court of law. Further this law allows authorities to prosecute the suspects with the voluntarily recorded confessions. As a result of these legal provisions, the AHRC have observed cases of hundreds of suspects who have severely tortured, later taken their signature for documents which were not recorded from them or explained to them and some occasions for mere blank papers, for use as confession against the suspects in court.

The AHRC have issued several dozens of urgent appeals in recent past for the detainees who were illegally arrested and detained under the PTA who saved prolong detentions without trials. The basic principles of rule of law is not respected within the legal system of Sri Lanka and these draconian laws curtail the civil liberties and fundamental human rights of the people of Sri Lanka.

The State of Sri Lanka sign and ratified the CAT on 3 January 1994. Following state obligations Sri Lanka adopted Act number 22 of 1994 the law adopted by the Sri Lankan parliament making torture a crime that can be punishable for minimum seven years and not less than ten years on being proven guilty. The Attorney General of Sri Lanka is suppose to file indictments in the case where credible evidence were found on torturing people by state officers.

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 of illegal arrest, illegal detention, torturing by the police perpetrators, and the prosecution of those proven to be responsible under the criminal law of the country for misusing powers of a state. The officers involved must also be subjected to internal investigations for the breach of the department orders as issued by the police department. Further, please also request the NPC and the IGP to have a special investigation into the malpractices of the police officers for abusing the state officers’ powers.

Please note that the AHRC has also written a separate letter to the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on this regard.

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