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Ratwatte in contempt of court? 

06 Oct 2021

BY Buddhika Samaraweera An application has been filed at the Vavuniya High Court (HC) yesterday (6) by the legal representation of three prisoners detained at the Anuradhapura Prison, seeking an order to summon the former Prison Management and Prisoners Rehabilitation State Minister Lohan Ratwatte over being in alleged contempt of court in connection with the latter’s reported intimidation of the said prisoners at the Anuradhapura Prison on 12 September.  These three prisoners are being detained under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act No. 48 of 1979 as amended (PTA). Attorney-at-Law K.S. Ratnavel, representing the detained trio (Sulakshan, Tharshan, and Thiruvarul), told The Morning yesterday that a case was being heard in the Vavuniya HC against the three accused under the PTA, adding that while the case has been ongoing for many years, the Vavuniya HC had ordered that the trio be held at the Anuradhapura Prison. “We have made three submissions and the first is for Ratwatte to be charged for committing the offence of contempt of court. In that, these three prisoners were committed to Prison by the order of the Vavuniya High Court and anything affecting them would be tantamount to interfering with the course of justice and the administration of justice,” Ratnavel noted. He further pointed out that even though Ratwatte, as a Parliamentarian could enter the Prison, he had no right to threaten the prisoners. “Therefore, he should be dealt with for having committed the crime of contempt of court.”  The second submission they have made is for Ratwatte to be charged for committing offences and serious crimes under the Penal Code, namely, attempted murder and torture, which are also offences punishable under the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) Act No. 22 of 1994 as amended and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act No. 56 of 2007 as amended. In the application, they have also requested that they be transferred from the Anuradhapura Prison to the Jaffna Prison as the said incident could endanger their lives. “Because they were threatened and their lives were endangered, and there was a lack of safety and security measures taken on the part of the prison authorities in Anuradhapura, which they should lawfully provide, the prisoners are under threat, mental stress, and trauma. Therefore, in order to guarantee their physical safety, we have requested that they be transferred from the Anuradhapura Prison to the Jaffna Prison,” Ratnavel added. According to him, the Vavuniya HC had subsequently ordered the three prisoners to be produced before the court on 26 October 2021. The court has also requested the prisoners’ legal counsel to submit further information along with the complaint which has been lodged at the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) with regard to the incident. The said application has been supported and submissions have been made by Anura Meddegoda PC. On 12 September 2021, an inebriated and pistol brandishing Ratwatte had flown in a helicopter to the Anuradhapura Prison, where he had allegedly summoned a group of Tamil political prisoners detained under the PTA (reports state between eight to 16 such prisoners), and ordered them to kneel, and had proceeded to threaten two of them including Mathiyarasan Sulakshan and Ganesan Tharshan, at point blank range, telling them to accept their offence/s and to submit to authority.  On 30 September, a group of eight Tamil political prisoners detained under the PTA at the Anuradhapura Prison, including Sulakshan, Tharshan, and Rasathurai Thiruvarul, filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition at the Supreme Court (SC) requesting for action to be taken against the alleged serious offences committed by Ratwatte. In the petition, they had sought a declaration to be made that their FR, guaranteed under Articles 11 (freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment, or punishment), 12(1) (right to equality and equal protection of the law), and 12(2) (freedom from discrimination and the right to non-discrimination) of the Constitution, have been infringed, and further prayed for interim orders for their transfer to prisons in the Northern Province, preferably the Jaffna Prison, and for them to be enlarged on bail. The SC has since ordered the Attorney General (AG), President’s Counsel (PC) Sanjay Rajaratnam to direct the Prisons Commissioner General H.M. Thushara N. Upuldeniya to ensure the security of the said eight prisoners at the Anuradhapura Prison. Prior to this incident, on 6 September, Ratwatte had, together with a group of friends, also under the influence of liquor, forcibly entered the Welikada Prison premises after 6 p.m. and proceeded to view the gallows. As per Section 39 of the Prisons Ordinance, a MP who wishes to pay a visit to a prison can only do so between the hours of 5.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. The Prisons Department, the HRCSL, and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) have since commenced investigations into the incidents, whilst Justice Minister, M.U.M. Ali Sabry PC appointed retired HC Judge Kusala Sarojani Weerawardena to independently inquire into the incidents. Ratwatte resigned from the post of the Prison Management and Prisoners Rehabilitation State Minister on 15 September, and he is claimed to have, as per a tweet by the President’s Spokesman, accepted responsibility for the incidents at the Welikada and Anuradhapura Prisons. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in the same tweet mentioned, had accepted the said resignation. However, in subsequent statements made to the media, Ratwatte who remains the Gem and Jewellery Related Industries State Minister had denied all allegations made against him.


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