COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
FAIR TRIAL
―With the passage of the 18th amendment, executive influence over the judiciary
significantly increased. The president appoints judges to the Supreme Court, the High
Court, and the courts of appeal. A judicial service commission, composed of the chief
justice and two Supreme Court judges, appoints and transfers lower court judges.
Although there were allegations of instances when the president may have intervened
to assign judges favorable to his position in high-profile cases, there were other
instances where judicial decisions clearly went against what the president might have
preferred. During the year the government again failed to appoint the Constitutional
Council, whose function is to ensure the independence of such constitutional bodies as
the Judicial Service Commission. As a result a series of important checks on executive
power were absent. Judges may be removed for misbehavior or incapacity but only
after an investigation followed by joint action of the president and the parliament.‖
9.05 Human Rights and Democracy: The 2010 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report -
Section VII: Human Rights in Countries of Concern 189 , released on 31 March 2011
observed that ―Sri Lanka has a highly developed judicial system, which faces many
challenges. At the end of the year, the Sri Lankan government reported a judicial
backlog of approximately 65,000 cases. As a consequence, there were a high number
of prisoners who had been on remand for a relatively long period. The Sri Lankan
government committed additional funds at the end of 2010 to clear this backlog.‖
PENAL CODE
9.06 The Penal Code of Sri Lanka (Consolidated version up to Act No. 16 of 2006 of 24 April
2006) is available clicking on the hyperlink.
10. ARREST AND DETENTION – LEGAL RIGHTS
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For information about the application of legal rights and violations of the law, see
Security forces and paramilitary groups.
10.01 The US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (USSD 2010) 190 ,
released on 8 April 2011, observed that:
―Under the law authorities are required to inform an arrested person of the reason for
arrest and bring that person before a magistrate within 24 hours, but in practice often
several days and sometimes weeks or months elapsed before detained persons
appeared before a magistrate. A magistrate could authorize bail or continued pretrial
188 US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (USSD 2010), released on 8 April 2011,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/sca/154486.htm , date accessed 11 May 2011, Section 1e
189 Human Rights and Democracy: The 2010 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report - Section VII:
Human Rights in Countries of Concern, released on 31 March 2011
http://centralcontent.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/human-rights-reports/accessible-hrd-report-2010 date
accessed 24 May 2011
190 US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (USSD 2010), released on 8 April 2011,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/sca/154486.htm , date accessed 11 May 2011, Section 1d
86 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.