COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
detention for up to three months or longer. Police do not need an arrest warrant for
certain offenses, such as murder, theft, robbery, and rape. In the case of murder, the
magistrate is required to remand the suspect, and only the High Court can grant bail. In
all cases suspects have the right to legal representation. Counsel is provided for
indigent defendants in criminal cases before the High Court and the Courts of Appeal,
but not in other cases. Outside of alleged secret, and therefore incommunicado,
detentions and prisons, detainees were allowed access to family members.
―A number of observers complained about the slow pace of the judicial process, with
some estimates claiming that more than half those in prison were either awaiting or
undergoing trial.
―Persons convicted and undergoing appeal did not receive credit towards their original
sentence for time served in prison while the appeal continued. Appeals often took
several years to resolve.
―The president granted amnesty to a number of prisoners throughout the year [2010],
sometimes for national holidays or other occasions. The criteria for determining who
benefitted from such releases were not clear. One report stated 1,312 prisoners were
given a presidential pardon in September, with unsubstantiated reports of payments to
government officials in return.‖
10.02 Human Rights and Security Issues concerning Tamils in Sri Lanka, Report from Danish
Immigration Service‘s fact-finding mission to Colombo, Sri Lanka 19 June to 3 July
2010 191 , dated October 2010 noted that: ―ICRC informed the delegation that under the
normal criminal law, the accused will have access to a legal advisor. In general, Legal
Aid is available, but often the detainee will not be aware of the possibility of legal aid
and does not have the resources to access a lawyer.‖
10.03 European Commission, Report on the findings of the investigation with respect to the
effective implementation of certain human rights conventions in Sri Lanka 192 , 19
October 2009, observed:
―In Sri Lanka constitutional safeguards relating to arrest and detention include Article 13
of the Constitution which foresees a number of fundamental safeguards, such as
freedom from arbitrary arrest and the right to be informed of the reasons for the arrest.
Every person held in custody, detained or deprived of personal liberty shall be brought
before a judge and shall not be further held in custody, detained or otherwise be
deprived of personal liberty except upon and in terms of the order of the judge. The
Code of Criminal Procedure includes safeguards regarding the integrity of detained
persons. However, many of the protections in the Code do not apply in cases of
detention under the emergency legislation [see below]. The emergency legislation
allows security forces to arrest persons on broadly defined grounds and to hold
191 Human Rights and Security Issues concerning Tamils in Sri Lanka, Report from Danish Immigration
Service’s fact-finding mission to Colombo, Sri Lanka 19 June to 3 July 2010, October 2010
http://www.nyidanmark.dk/NR/rdonlyres/899724D8-BEEB-4D9E-B3B2-
F2B28A505CCD/0/fact_finding_report_sri_lanka_2010.pdf date accessed 27 May 2011, p47-48
192 European Commission, Report on the findings of the investigation with respect to the effective
implementation of certain human rights conventions in Sri Lanka, 19 October 2009
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2009/october/tradoc_145152.pdf date accessed: 11 January 2010,
p50
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.
87