A miscarriage of justice - EDITORIAL

After eight Tamil detainees were released on a Presidential pardon on October 24, the day on which Hindus celebrated Deepavali, the Presidential Secretariat had issued a statement on the matter. The statement said that three out of eight prisoners had been convicted in connection with the bomb attack targeting President Chandrika Kumaratunga at a rally on the eve of the 1999 Presidential election, at the Town Hall Grounds in Colombo.  

An overlooked fact in the Statement was that four out of eight detainees so released had served longer prison terms than their court ordered conviction.  One prisoner who had been sentenced to 11 years had served 14 years, one who had been sentenced to 10 years had served 14 years and another two prisoners who had given a 5 year prison sentence had served a 14-year prison term.

Isn’t this a strange situation? And we cannot doubt about this fact in the statement as we believe the President’s office would not have spread false information which would also put the government in the dock at a time it is being accused of violating human rights by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Leave alone the government being put in the dock, and the UNHRC adding this fact in its list of human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government, this is a serious matter and government must explain the circumstances led to this blunder. People arrested for various offences languish in prisons as remand prisoners before they are convicted by courts. Then they are convicted and start to serve their prison term. Therefore, it is common knowledge that people convicted have to be in prisons for a longer period than their prison term. Yet, since it is a common practice, the Presidential Secretariat couldn’t have referred to such a scenario here. 

When the statement says “One prisoner who had been sentenced to 11 years had served 14 years,” it doesn’t sound to count the period the prisoner was in remand prison. Even if one counts the period under remand custody, it looks grave when the statement says “two prisoners who were sentenced to five years, but had served 14 years in jail.” On what grounds and under which law the authorities have kept these detainees in prison for a longer period than their prison term?

Commenting on the matter, the National Peace Council (NPC), a non-governmental organization working in the fields of reconciliation and human rights for the past several decades, has said in a statement that this is a serious violation of human rights in terms of international human rights covenants and an intolerable abuse of power by those who kept them incarcerated in this manner for a longer period of time. The Council had also called on the authorities to pay compensation to the prisoners concerned considering the number of years lost to the victims. In fact, the authorities have unjustly deprived these persons of several years which could have used by them for rebuilding their life and that of their families. 

The prisoners being cadres of the LTTE, during a period when the life of every citizen of this country was threatened, is not at all a justification of detaining them for a longer period than their conviction period specified by the court. And this matter should draw the attention of the civic-minded people in this country to the long-drawn issue about the Tamil prisoners who had been detained for being involved in the separatist activities 13 or more years ago. Despite the number of prisoners detained for fighting for a political cause - though illegal and in violent means - now being very small, it is a major issue among the Tamil people. It is an irony that there is such an issue still prevailing in this country, while Kumaran Pathmanathan or KP, the man who took the responsibility to carry forward the armed struggle against the Sri Lankan government after the decimation of the entire LTTE leadership in 2009, is at large under the protection of the government. And there is a court ruling as well that he cannot be charged. 

On June 23 last year, the then minister Namal Rajapaksa made an inspiring speech in Parliament on this matter. He said that some of these Tamil detainees have been in remand prison for a period longer than his age (35 years), with no charges having been filed against them till today. He stated that there were 35 convicted prisoners who have been in remand for a longer period than the actual sentence they received and there are another 38 prisoners whose cases are pending before the High Court for more than 20 years. 

Sixteen months have passed without any major decision being taken, since Rajapaksa, especially representing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, a party always accused of racism had gave optimistic hopes to the world on this long standing issue. It is high time for the authorities to think on the validity of keeping these people in cells while their leaders, KP and Karuna are at large.