Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that a rape victim for whom we have been campaigning has finally won her case in court, after a judge took particular interest. The victim has been fighting a criminal case against her father for more than five years, during which she has been threatened and harassed, and has endured continual court delays.
UPDATED INFORMATION:
Sandamali (pictured, with permission) was 13 years old when she was raped a number of times by her father in 2002, and had already experienced considerable domestic abuse along with her mother (read more in UA-51-2002).
The rape trial was opened in the high court in 2005 after many delays; it was then called 23 times. On 17 November 2009 a new judge decided to conclude the case after hearing that Sandamali and her mother were being regularly pressured to settle out of court by associates of the perpetrator. After listening to the first witness, also the victim’s mother, Justice Surasena asked the state counsel to make his submission, which was a request for the maximum penalty. The perpetrator had already spent four years in remand, and was sentenced to ten more years’ rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 20,000.
The conclusion of this case is gratifying yet delays of this length are common and intensely traumatic; plaintiffs often live with regular threats and other forms of pressure for them to settle. This is one reason for the notoriously low rate of criminal conviction in Sri Lanka.
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Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org)
