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SRI LANKA: Custodial death in Negombo; prime witness assaulted by jailors

September 23, 2008

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-214-2008

24 September 2008
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SRI LANKA: Custodial death in Negombo; prime witness assaulted by jailors

ISSUES: Witness protection; assault; custodial death; prison conditions; corruption
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that an inmate died in Negombo prison after being assaulted by jail guards on 4 July 2008. While the investigation was being conducted, Miswar, the prime witness in the case was attacked by jail guards who did not want him to come before the court as a witness. He then went into hiding for fear of further assault.

CASE DETAILS:

Mr. Seynool Arbdeen Seynool Aswar went to Negombo prison to see his brother, Mr. Seynool Miswar, an inmate in the prison at 3pm on 3 July 2008. While talking together, Miswar told Aswar that prison officers had threatened to assault him unless he would pay Rs. 25,000/= (USD 232). Miswar asked Aswar to come the next day with the money. At that time he would show Aswar the person to whom he should hand over the money. He also asked Aswar to pay Rs. 1,000 to the officer present at the meeting.  Aswar had only Rs. 500/= (USD 4) on him but he handed it  all over to that officer, whom Aswar can identify.

Just before Miswar died, Mr. Seyedu Mohmad Abhu Ubeyda, another inmate was going for a bath at 4pm on July 3.  He saw Miswar holding his chest and abdomen. When asked, Miswar told him that Budhika and two other guards had assaulted him, which caused him severe pain. Abhu Ubeyda advised him to go to the hospital. On his way back from the bath, he saw that Miswar had fallen down dead on the floor.

When the investigation was initiated, Abhu Ubeyda testified to officers from the Crime Section of the Negombo Police Station as to what he had heard from Miswar. Based on his statement, Negombo police took the two jail guards, Warnakulasuriya Loreto Meril Frances Lowe and M. Budhika Jayasanka into custody and put them on remand.

After making his statement, two inmates came, took him behind Ward 11 and pretended to hit him. They did not beat him but pushed him so that he fell down. He was admitted to the prison hospital because of this incident .The chief Jailor (CJ), Jagath asked Ubeyda to meet with him. After he was discharged from the hospital, he went to the CJ’s office. He asked questions about this incident and made notes but, without Ubeyda's signature. While Ubeyda was in the CJ's office, he heard some officers outside calling his name saying that he was granted bail. The CJ told him, "you have been bailed out. It is good for all of us that you are leaving. If you stay here, we may all have to go to prison. We will come and see you at home. I will give you Rs. 150,000 if you do not mention my name in the incident." However, Ubeyda did not accept this offer.

At around 9:45pm on July 17, four persons in helmets came to his house, tied him to the window grille and beat him with a pole for some time. They warned him not to come forward before the court as a witness in the case of Miswar. According to Ubeyda, he recognized two of them as the jail guards, Peiries and Jagath.

With respect to the case in the death of Mr. Seynool Miswar, the Supreme Court has granted leave to proceed with the application in respect of violation of article 11, 12, 13(4) and 17 of the Sri Lankan Constitution (Case No. 342/2008).

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

This is yet another instance of cruel, degrading or inhuman punishment or treatment by authorities by an abuse of power. This case also shows how state officers from several branches get together, bribe each other or follow instructions from higher authorities for their own private purposes to the detriment of the public. (Please see AHRC-UAC-191-2008, AHRC-UAC-189-2008)

The case of Nandani Kumari also shows how a jailor treated a person in the prison. (AHRC-UAC-196-2008)

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the government authorities listed below and urge them to provide protection for the witness and investigate the attack so that those responsible are properly prosecuted and punished according to the law.

Please be informed that the AHRC has written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the question of torture calling for an intervention in this case.

To support this appeal, please click here:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear _________,

SRI LANKA: Custodial death in Negombo prison; prime witness assaulted by jailors

Details of victims:
1. Mr. Seynnool Miswar from Mosque Lane, Periyamulla; died in Negombo prison after being beaten by three jail guards,one known as Budhika on 4 July 2008
2. Mr. Seyedu Mohmad Abhu Ubeyda; assaulted by four men, two of them identified as jail guards Peiries and Jagath at 9:45pm on July 17; currently in hiding for fear of a further attack

I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the custodial death in Negombo prison and the attack on the prime witness.

According to information I have received, Mr. Seynool Miswar was found dead after being assaulted by jail guards on July 4 in Negombo prison. In the meeting with his relatives, the day before his death, he asked his brother to give money to the guards. His brother gave them all the money that he had on him. He further revealed threats that he had received from the guards. Before his death, he related to Mr. Abhu Ubeyda, another inmate in the prison that he had been beaten by three guards. A short time later he was found dead on the floor.

From information I have learned that when the investigation started, Ubeyda told everything he heard from Miswar to the Negombo Police Station staff. Later the Chief Jailor, Jagath offered him money on the condition that he not mention his name to the police officers. Ubeyda turned down the bribe offered by the CJ. At home after being released on bail, at 9:45pm on July 17 four men came to his house, tied him to the window grille and beat him with a pole. Of the four men, two were identified by Ubeyda as Peiries and Jagath.They warned him not to come forward before the court as a witness in the Miswar case.

I am shocked to learn that even though Miswar received continuous threats from the guards, the chief jailor failed to take proper action to protect Miswar from being beaten which type of violence caused the death of Miswar.
Later he offered a bribe to Ubeyda not to mention his name when the investigation started. While welcoming the police investigation, I noticed that they failed to investigate the attack on Ubeyda, prime witness in the death of Misar and provide adequate protection for him. Due to this lack of protection, Ubeyda has gone into hiding for fear of being further assaulted by the guards.

Accordingly, I urge you to ensure a proper and thorough investigation into Miswar ‘s case so that the guards responsible for beating him to death are effectively prosecuted and punished according to the law. Given the circumstances, I also urge you to establish a proper system to receive complaints, regarding any kind of torture or ill -treatment by prison guards, in order to proactively prevent such inhuman behavior.

I further call upon you to investigate the assault of Ubeyda by four men including two jailors so that those responsible are properly punished according to the law. The attack made him go into hiding for fear of being further assaulted or harassed either by the jailors themselves or others instigated by the jailors. In this regard, I strongly urge you to provide protection for those who speak out about human rights violations.

Yours sincerely,

________________
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Commissioner General of Prisons
Department of Prisons
150, Baseline Road
Colombo 09
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2695204
Fax +94 11 2695205
E-mail: prisons@sltnet.lk 

2. Mr. C. R. De Silva
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436 421
E-mail: ag@attorneygeneral.gov.lk 

3. Mr. Jayantha Wickramaratne
Inspector General of Police
New Secretariat
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 440440/327877
E-mail: igp@police.lk 

4. Secretary
Human Rights Commission
No. 36, Kynsey Road
Colombo 8
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk 

5. Secretary
National Police Commission
3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers,
109 Galle Road
Colombo 03
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 395310
Fax: +94 11 2 395867
E-mail: npcgen@sltnet.lk or polcom@sltnet.lk 

6. Hon. Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe
Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights
2, Wijerama Mawatha
Colombo 7
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 269 3284 (Attn: Dr. Rajiva Wijesinghe, Secretary)
E-mail: info@dmhr.gov.lk 

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-214-2008
Countries :
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.