Will The 48 hour Detention Law Improve Investigations or Increase Torture?

M.A.Sumanthiran MP

by M.A.Sumanthiran M.P.

“To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole kingdom; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government”…..… Sir William Blackstone
On Tuesday, 22nd January 2013, Parliament will take up for debate the ‘Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provisions)’ Bill. This legislation which will, among other things, enable the police to detain a person who has been arrested without a warrant for 48 hours before producing her/him before a magistrate has resulted in serious widespread concern amongst political groups, human rights group and the legal community.

Sending Jaffna students to rehab illegal - Sumanthiran

Amila Jayasinghe
Sending the Jaffna University students, recently arrested for lighting lamps in commemoration of the LTTE Martyrs’ Day, to a rehabilitation camp, without producing them in courts, is legal, the Joint Opposition charged.
Addressing the media in Colombo today, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran said the issue is quite serious, as it has happened at a time when the government has pronounced terrorism has come to an end.

Sri Lanka: Security forces continue arresting Tamil youth

Demonstration in Colombo by Equal Rights Movement ( photo : Lanka views)

The Sri Lankan military and the police continued their arrests of Tamil youth and Jaffna University students in the war-ravaged north over the past week, detaining many under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Detainees can be held for 90 days without trial under the PTA and the defence secretary can extend the incarceration. Police can also use confessions extracted under torture as evidence against detainees.
The harassment started on November 27 when a group of university students attempted to commemorate victims of the government’s war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was militarily defeated in May 2009.

Sri Lanka: Consolidation of Rajapaksa Inc.

Col. R. Hariharan
( December 9, 2012, Chennai, sri Lanka Guardian) The walk out of Chief Justice Mrs Shirani Bandaranayake and her team of lawyers from a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) hearing on an impeachment motion against her Thursday was an eloquent testimony to the charade being enacted in Sri Lanka in the name of democracy.

Mrs Bandaranayake, who was picked by the President for the high office though she lacked adequate judicial experience, fell out of favour with her ruling on the Dive Neguma Bill. She ruled that the Bill required the approval of all provincial councils before enactment as it impinged upon their constitutional powers. Apparently she had taken her job too seriously and stopped the Bill from being passed forgetting it was moved by President’s brother Basil Rajapaksa, Minister for economic development.

Dangerous conspiracy to repeal the 13th amendment?

TNA leader Sampanthan:GoSL afraid of TNA leed North PC

 Seran Senguttuvan
 The 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution came by largely as a result of the Indo Lanka Agreement (1987) after substantial and careful study by legal and other experts of both countries.  The Agreement came at a time when the JR Jayawardena Government was under extreme pressure simultaneously from the JVP in the South and the LTTE in the North  - both having launched island-wide attacks on State utilities as well as the Police and the armed forces. It is reported in a crucial meeting called by President Jayawardena – in the presence of most of the senior Cabinet Ministers the President asked the 4 chiefs of the forces individually if they can hold the government’s writ in the event of attacks both by the JVP and the LTTE.

Wimal calls for referendum to abolish 13-A

Close on the heels of Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa reiterating his call for abolition of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, the National Freedom Front (NFF) leader, Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa, MP, has urged President Mahinda Rajapaksa to hold a referendum to decide on the controversial amendment.
MP Weerawansa has sought an urgent meeting with President Rajapaksa to make a detailed presentation to the president in the wake of many nationalist groups, including the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) pushing for the abolition of the Amendment, which was forced on Sri Lanka under the Indo-Lanka Accord.

‘Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provision) Bill: Extended detention of persons, arrested without a warrant, could not be justified in a democracy - PSP

Bill gives police a free hand

The Frontline Socialist Party yesterday called upon the people to rise up against the government’s plan to bring in new laws in order to extend the period of detention of persons arrested without a warrant.

The FSP politburo, in a statement, said that a draft bill had been presented to the Parliament by the government on October 11, under the title ‘Code of Criminal Procedure (Special Provision) Bill’ to extend the detention period from 24 hours to 48 hours, after arrest to facilitate the investigation process.