SRI LANKA: Police allegedly assault minor and fabricate charges

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Ambalantota police officers assaulted a minor and arbitrarily arrested and detained her and her sister in the custody on 1 September 2008. In the police station, the officers forced them to sign a document which was not explained and put their fingerprints to a bottle of liquor, which has been later used for a case. Due to the assault, the minor had been hospitalized for several days after being released on bail.

CASE DETAILS: (Based on the testimony of Madushani Subasinghe)

On 1 September 2008, Madushani Subasinghe (16) was returning home from her aunt’s house at about 7:30pm. Opposite her house, she saw an armed group of officers in civilian clothes. One officer asked her where her parents were. Madushani told them that she was not aware, since she had been at school the whole day.

On response, two officers suddenly assaulted Madushani on her thighs and hands and had kept on threatening and asking her parent’s whereabouts. When Madushani tried to avoid the beating by covering herself with the hands she got a severe blow on to her hand and she fainted.

Later on she came to know that one of the officers who had assaulted her was named Banadara. The officers then forced her into the police jeep along with her sister Subadrika Chandrasani Subasinghe and her two children.

As a result of the assault Madushani’s both hands got benumbed and she complained of a severe pain in her chest. Madushani was feeling so ill that she had to lie down on her sister’s lap. The officers who heard her complaints did not afford her any comfort or medical examination or treatment, they told her that she was making it all up. Madushani, her sister and the two children were then been taken to a room behind Ambalanthota Police Station.

At about 8:30pm, two police officers tied two pieces of wooden rods–a kind of native treatment on to Madushani’s hands with a piece of old cloth, thinking that they were broken. At about 8:40 pm an officer brought a woman to stay with them in the room. That night Madushani, her sister and the two children were told to stay in the room till morning. They were not given anything to eat that night and were told not to leave the room.

At about 6am on September 2, Madushani’s sister removed the wooden rods from her hands as Madushani’s hands were sore and she was in pain. After that officer Bandara had come and asked them why they removed the wooden rods. Then, they were taken out from the room and made to sit on a bench till 4pm.

Meantime, at 1pm, they were forced to sign some papers whose contents were not known to them. Then, Bandara and one sub inspector forced to apply their finger prints on a bottle and a barrel of illicit liquor. They threatened them to oblige and out of fear they did so. Madushani’s aunt and the other sister met the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the station. Madushani and her sister were released on bail. They were asked to report to court on September 4. The police also got Madushani’s aunt to sign a document saying that Madushani was in good health. They also threatened Madushani’s relatives not to speak to anyone with regard to this incident.

At 8pm, Madushani was admitted to Hambanthota General Hospital and received treatment and discharged on September 3. However due to her health condition, she was admitted to Tangalle Hospital again on September 4 where she received treatment for another three days and discharged on September 6. During her hospitalization, the hospital police took a statement from her and Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) examined her.

Madushani and her relatives later got to know that the police filed a false case against her at the Hambanthota Magistrate court stating that she was in possession of illicit liquor.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

Besides of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, it is also another area of concern in Sri Lanka where fabrication of charges against an arrested or detained person is common practice by the police. It has widely used by the police to justify the initial arrest and/or continued detention of a person, including preventing that a person is released on bail or secure a conviction against a person. The cases of Aravinda (please refer to AHRC-UAC-172-2008) and Naidos (please refer to AHRC-STM-210-2008, AHRC-STM-209-2008) are recent examples of showing this practice.

The case of Sarath Kumara also shows that fabrication of charges has been used in a case where senior police officer involved in ill treatment played a leading role in making false medical report against Sarath Kumara, junior officer. (Please also see AHRC-UAC-211-2008)

Until the process of false charges, there is no doubt that right to access a lawyer, the right to habeas corpus, the right to free from torture and ill treatment and right to fair trial have been denied.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the authorities listed below urging them to look into this case and to ensure that the offenders if proved guilty are brought to book and the case is dropped.

Please be informed that the AHRC has written separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the question of torture calling for an intervention in this matter.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER