SRI LANKA: Innocent man victimised by illegal arrest and detention due to unlawful police malpractice of misrepresenting suspect’s identity in court 

SRI LANKA: Illegal arrest and detention; poor practice of verifying identify of suspect in court; un-rule of law
————————————-

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that an innocent man in Galle, Sri Lankan was illegal arrested and detained for 3 days because the police misrepresented his identity in court. More shockingly, the second magistrate, who was informed this fact, did not release him but kept him in remand until the next date of the case. Now, the victim is receiving severe threats from the police due to his complaint to Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Galle.  In Sri Lanka, it is common practice that the police ‘smuggle in’ innocent people on behalf of the real suspects.

At around 11:30pm on 2 October 2006, two police constables (PCs) from the Akmeemana police station visited the house of Mr. Rasurajah (32), a Tamil ethnic labourer in a tea estate residing in Talgampola, Galle, Sri Lanka. They were in civilian clothes and came in a vehicle belonging to the Rathgama police. They knocked at the door and when it was opened said they had a warrant. However, they did not specify for what reason the warrant was issued. The two policemen then searched the entire house.

Then, a Sub Inspector (SI) of the Rathgama police walked up to Mr. Rasurajah and grabbed him by his shirt collar. Mr. Rasurajah saw that several others with T-56 guns were staring at him menacingly. They then dragged him to the police vehicle and forced him into it. According to Mr. Rasurajah, the police then went to the estate superintendent’s house where the SI and another alighted from the jeep inside for a little while. A little while later they returned and left the place.

Mr. Rasurajah further said that the policemen drove to several other houses before finally taking him to the Akmeemana police station. He was then locked inside a cell, where he was detained for the remainder of that day and the entire following day without being given any food or water. He was not also informed why he was arrested and detained.

On October 4, the Akmeemana police took Mr. Rasurajah to the Galle Magistrate’s Court and requested that case No69431 be taken up, which was done outside court and inside the Magistrate’s chambers. The police produced him before the magistrate and had proclaimed, “We arrested the surety on a warrant”. Mr. Rasurajah did not understand what the police said. But the Magistrate without uttering a word to him and without any further ado, ordered that he be released on surety bail of Rs 100,000 (USD 933) and fixed the case for 6 December 2006. However, as there was no one to pose bail for him, he was remanded.

When Mr. Rasurajah was handed over to the remand authority, after inspecting the relevant documents presented to them, the remand officials refused to accept him into their custody insisting the papers related to another person. They informed this to an interpreter of the court but by that time the magistrate had already left his chambers. They then referred the case to another magistrate who told Mr. Rasurajah that the police had caused an injustice to him and had produced him in court misrepresenting his identity as one “M. Selliah”. This magistrate then told him to ‘look around’ and see whether he could find anyone who could act as surety on his behalf. When he said that there was no such person, the magistrate still remanded him until the next date of the case.

On 6 October 2006 Mr. Rasurajah was released. Ironically on both occasions in magistrate court, he had retained a lawyer paying Rs. 1500 (USD 14) per appearance but this lawyer failed to bring these matters to the attention of court. As a result Mr. Rasurajah was unjustly detained over three days.

After being released, Mr. Rasurajah complained about his case to the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Galle. However, he is now receivng death threats from the Akmeemana police and no action has been taken against the responsible police officers. According to the victim, the Akmeemana police told him that if he pursued his complaint they would arrest him, falsely charge him with being an LTTEer (a Tamil armed insurgent) and kill him.

Misrepresenting the identities of suspects when producing them in court is a common practice of the Sri Lanka police. This is allowed to take place because despite Sri Lankan citizens’ identities are checked almost at every nook and corner, the magistrates rarely inquire or verify the identities of suspects produced by the police before issuing remand orders. This enables the police to surreptitiously ‘smuggle in’ innocent people on behalf of the real suspects, who the police are for whatever reason reluctant to so produce in court, and have them remanded. It is hard to believe that they are unaware of this rather popular practice of the police.

This incident also shows the unprofessional and unethical practices of some magistrate’s court lawyers who collect high fees from their hapless clients but utterly fail in their responsibilities towards their clients in court.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant Sri Lankan authorities listed below and urge them to take strong action against the officers responsible for the victim’s illegal arrest & detention and for misleading court regarding his identity. Please also urge them to ensure that the Sri Lankan magistrate courts are instructed to verify the identities of suspects before remanding them into custody. The Sri Lankan Bar Association also need to take disciplinary action against the lawyer who despicably failed to perform his professional duties towards his client (the victim).

 

 

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