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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

3 October 2003

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UA-58-2003: SRI LANKA: Two young men illegally arrested and assaulted by the police officers from the Mutwal Police Station

SRI LANKA: Illegal arrest; Torture; Fabrication of charge
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Dear friends

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that two young men were illegally arrested and tortured by the police officers after they tried to make a complaint about drunken police officers. Furthermore, the police attempted to fabricate charges against the victims. Your urgent action is requested to pressure the local authorities to correct this matter.

Urgent Appeals Desk

Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

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Name of the victims: Conganige Pradeep Surendra, aged 29, a mechanic; Christopher Junius Lafaber, aged 23, a hair dresser

Perpetrators: a sub-inspector Sujith Ganganath and three police officers attached to the Mutwal Police Station

Date of incident: 5-6 September 2003

DETAILED INFORMATION:

During the DJ musical show at St. John¡¦s School playground for the "Feast of St. John" in the evening of 5 September 2003, Harvey Benard Anthony Jurie opened a stand at the ground and his two friends, Christopher Junius Lafaber (23 years old) and Pradeep Surendra Anthony (29 years old) were helping him.

At about 10:00pm, two drunken Police Officers from the Mutwal Police Station came to the stand and wanted two plastic cups. Anthony Jurie wanted them to pay money for the cups and the police officers paid. However, after for a while, those two officers came to the stand again and wanted the money back. They threw the two cups at Anthony Jurie, slapped him and scolded him filthily.

Anthony Jurie then went with his son to the Mutwal police station to make a complaint. He asked the police officers to take some action, to take the drunken police officers away from his stand, however, the officer in the station did not take any action nor register his complaint. Then, Anthony Jurie went to the Police Headquarters in Colombo Fort at about midnight to lodge a complaint. While he was in the Police Head Quarters, Anthony Jurie received a call from his wife that Christopher and Pradeep, who were looking after his stand, were taken into police custody.

A sub-inspector Sujith Ganganath and three police officers from the Mutwal police station came to the stand, and arrested Christopher and Pradeep without any warrant. The police didn't give any explanation of their arrest and these two young men were taken to the police station. When they approached the police station, the police officers started to assault them with their hands, kicked them with their boots and gave body blows. They beat the victims until they could not stand any more. Finally, the victims fell down. A sub-inspector Sujith Ganganatha also beat Pradeep with a handle of the pistol and he started to bleed from both sides of his nose. Then the police officers battered him for some time. After that, they forced Pradeep to wash away his blood and put the victims in the cell.

At around 3:00am, the police officers took the victims to the government medical officer living in Ragama and she instructed the police to admit Pradeep to hospital. The police took them to the Accident Ward of the National Hospital in Colombo. While the police were with Christopher in the vehicle, Pradeep went inside the hospital and took x-rays. The doctors at the Accident Ward advised the police officers to leave Pradeep in the hospital for treatment, but they refused it. The victims were brought back to the Mutwal Police Station. When the victims' family members came to see Christopher, the police officers said that he was not in the police station and chased them away.

At 1:00pm on the 6 September 2003, the police officers brought Christopher and Pradeep to the magistrate at Hulftsdorp by implicating them on a false charge. The police fabricated a story that there was a clash between two parties and the police arrested the victims. The police said that Pradeep and Christopher were injured due to the clash. The victims were given personal bail. After they were released, Pradeep went to Colombo Headquarters and lodged an entry about the whole incident. On 17 September, the case was called up and it was postponed until 1 October, stating that the other party was not identified (available).

On 24 September, there was an inquiry at Police Headquarters on this complaint. Mr. Nanayakkara, the Assistant Superintendent of the Police (ASP) in-charge of the area, took the statements from Pradeep, Christopher and Anthony.

Because of the torture by the police officers, the victims have been suffering now. According to the x-ray reports, Pradeep's nose was broken and it is in pain until now. Furthermore, Pradeep and Christopher have not yet resumed their jobs because of injuries.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please send a letter, fax or email to the local authorities to express your concern on this case.

1 Hon. Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe
Prime Minister
Cambridge Place, Colombo 7
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 1 2 682905
E-mail: secpm@sltnet.lk or bradmanw@slt.lk

2. Hon. Mr. K. C. Kamalasabesan
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 1 2 436 421
Email: attorney@sri.lanka.net or counsel@sri.lanka.net

3. Mr. Ranjith Abeysuriya PC
Chairman National Police Commission
69-1 Ward Place, Colombo 7
Sri Lanka
Fax: +94 1 2 691 926
Fax HOME: +941 2 674148

4. National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
No. 36, Kynsey Road, Colombo 8
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 1 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 1 2 694 924
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk

5. Mr. Theo C. van Boven
Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 22 917-9016
E-mail: secrt.hchr@unog.ch

and at:
International Relations
Maastricht University
The Netherlands
Tel: 31-43-3883233 (Assistant: Chantal Kuipers)
E-mail: th.vanboven@ir.unimaas.nl

Suggested Letter:

Dear

Re: Two young men illegally arrested and assaulted by the police officers from the Mutwal Police Station

Name of the victims: Conganige Pradeep Surendra, aged 29, a mechanic; Christopher Junius Lafaber, aged 23, a hair dresser

Perpetrators: a sub-inspector Sujith Ganganath and three police officers attached to the Mutwal Police Station

Date of incident: 5-6 September 2003

I am writing to bring to your attention to a torture of Christopher Junius Lafaber and Pradeep Surendra Anthony committed by the police officers from the Mutwal police station.

A sub-inspector Sujith Ganganath and three police officers from the Mutwal police station illegally arrested the victims without any warrant on 5 September 2003 because they made a complaint about two drunken police officers who created a disturbance at their stand.

The police officers assaulted the victims severely and gave body blows until they could not stand any more. A sub-inspector Sujith Ganganatha even beat Pradeep with the handle of a pistol and broke his nose. More seriously, the police officers attempted to fabricate the case and implicated them on a false charge.

I strongly urge you to order a immediate investigation of this case and punish the perpetrators who illegally arrested and tortured the victims. The perpetrators who attempted to fabricate the case should be punished by law. I also urge you to provide compensation to the victims according to international law.

Yours Sincerely,

***********

Thank you.

Kim Soo A
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)