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Urgent Appeals Case: UAC-078-2009

http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/support.php?ua=UAC-078-2009

SRI LANKA: Police officers torture and frame a young man who has been
in remand prison for a year

ISSUES: Fabricated charges; torture

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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a young man
was taken into a police station and tortured after he displeased local criminals. He was reportedly framed while in custody, fabricated charges were taken against him and he has been in remand prison since April 2008. The case suggests cooperation between an illegal network of alcohol vendors and the police.

CASE DETAILS: (According to the victim and his mother)

According to information we have received, Lectchchaman Punyamoorthi
(21) angered a ring of illegal alcohol vendors early last year when he asked them to stop selling to his father, who he says was a heavy drinker and prone to domestic violence.

On April 5, 2008 the group abducted Puniyamoorthy and took him from
his home to an abandoned house, where he was tied with up a rope and
forced to drink their alcohol. The group called the police and accused Puniyamoorthy of selling it himself.

According to the victim he was tortured at the police station shortly
after his arrest: he was forced to remove his clothes and his legs were beaten; he was pushed face down on a bench and had his back beaten with a pole; his head was submerged repeatedly in cold water.

The police officers also reportedly forced the victim to handle an empty box, into which they put a hand grenade. The next day Puniyamoorthy was taken to the Matale magistrate court and accused of carrying explosives, with his fingerprints on the box used as evidence. Since this is a serious offence under the explosives ordinance Puniyamoorthy was sent into remand without bail. The police have filed two cases, B 362/08 and B 360/08 against him and the victim has been in the Rajaveediya Kandy remand prison since April 11, 2008.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

This is not the first time the officers at Rattota police station have been accused of misconduct. The Asian Human Rights Commission is still awaiting an explanation into officers’ inept investigation into one child rape allegation (UAC-330-2007 <http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2007/2680/), in which they appeared to favour the accused, and into another (AHRC-UAC-048-2009 <http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2009/3155 ), in which the accused rapist was barely investigated and remains at large.

Sri Lankan citizens are protected from torture in sections 11, 12 and 13 of the Democratic Constitution of Sri Lanka, and under CAT, the UN convention against torture, the government is obliged to punish any
perpetrator of such crimes with at least seven years imprisonment or
a minimum penalty of Rs10,000. The convention was adopted by Sri
Lanka in 1994 but remains under-implemented.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the local authorities listed below and demand that due disciplinary and legal action be taken against the officers at Rattota Police Station who have engaged in torture and fabricated charges, and that an investigation be started into the officers’ for misconduct. Please ask for the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission and National Police Commission to ensure that the victim receives a swift and fair trail and adequate compensation for torture, and that they take action to ensure that the authorities’ duties under CAT are more widely followed and understood.

The AHRC has written a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur
on the Question of Torture calling for an intervention into this
case.

To support this appeal please click here:
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/support.php?ua=UAC-078-2009