{"id":53440,"date":"2012-09-09T09:53:17","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T09:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=53440"},"modified":"2012-09-14T19:06:32","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T19:06:32","slug":"arrest-illegal-imprisonment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/arrest-illegal-imprisonment\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrest Illegal Imprisonment!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Prisoners are also human beings\u2019 is the large-lettered legend that decorates the wall of the Welikada Prison<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 The Sri Lankan prison system recognizes the fact and has space for many programs that affirm it.\u00a0 Prisoners, especially those serving long sentences, learn new trades, prepare for and sit examinations, put together all manner of cultural events, participate in meditation programs and through these and other measures obtain meaning for their otherwise monotonous lives.<\/p>\n

Of course, those entering prison find themselves in some half-way house to enlightenment, heaven or blissful state of being of course.\u00a0 A lot of seedy things happen in prison.\u00a0 Hardcore criminals are known to direct criminal activity from their cells.\u00a0 Some prison officers are said to work hand-in-glove with these criminals.<\/p>\n

And yet, prisoners are human beings and when the term \u2018Prisoners\u2019 Rights\u2019 is brought up, what is conjured is the notion that even while serving sentences there are non-negotiable privileges that they have the right to enjoy and therefore need to have access to.\u00a0 Forgotten in this is the most fundamental of all rights guaranteed to citizens who for whatever reason is made part of legal processes.\u00a0 Justice.<\/p>\n

Justice is the most fundamental of prisoner-rights.\u00a0 Wrongful arrest is not new. Conviction on thin or false evidence is also not uncommon.\u00a0 All kinds of injustices are wrought by special laws, such as Emergency Regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act.\u00a0 The law is silent in times of war, they say.\u00a0 That\u2019s hard to swallow for the law abiding citizen and the champion of democracy, but what is most unpalatable is the screw ups that have nothing to do with extraordinary circumstances, the injustices in routine legal processes and the immense violence done to human beings consequently.<\/p>\n

The case of Loku Vithanage Ratnapala, Prisoner No. P7834 in the Mahara Prison is one of many where justice has slipped, most of which have been examined thoroughly by rights advocate Kalyananda Thiranagama and his team of civil conscious citizens.<\/p>\n

Ratnapala is now 61 years old, has spent 29 years in prison and is to complete his sentence(s) on March 31, 1953 at which time he would be 102.\u00a0 His family has abandoned him.\u00a0 His wife last visited in 1992 and his son in 2003, which was his first and last visit.\u00a0 He does not get any letters from anyone.\u00a0 He was sentenced to 84 years rigorous imprisonment in 3 cases by the Morawaka Magistrate\u2019s Court in 1988.\u00a0 He had already being service sentences imposed in other cases and did not have legal representation. He pleaded guilty.\u00a0 The charges: a) causing simple hurt by assaulting with hand and robbery of a repeated gun, b) unlawful assembly, house breaking and retention of stolen property, and c) unlawful assembly, house breaking, robbery of goods worth Rs. 4,900 and retention of stolen property.<\/p>\n

Thiranagama contends that the sentences of 15 years and two of 34.5 years each are illegal, exceeding the powers and jurisdiction of the Magistrates\u2019 Courts.\u00a0 He cites the proviso to S 16 of the Code of Criminal Procedures Act according to which a Magistrate\u2019s Court can impose a sentence exceeding two years only where a person is convicted of several trials at one trial.\u00a0 A person with previous convictions can be sentenced to two additional years, under the provisions of the Prevention of Crimes Ordinance, with the condition that the fact must be stated.\u00a0 The maximum that Ratnapala could have been given is 12 and not 84 years as per the upper limits of jurisdiction.\u00a0 Add the other convictions and Ratnapala ought to be serving 40 years.<\/p>\n

When one considers that prisoners serving long sentence are required to serve only two-thirds of the term, Ratnapala should have been released in May 2012, not counting in other term-reductions usually dispensed on special occasions.<\/p>\n

\u2018Any sentence of imprisonment exceeding 4 years imposed by a Magistrate\u2019s Court is illegal, incompetent and lacking in validity.\u00a0 A prisoner is not bound to serve such an illegal sentence and prison authorities are not legally obliged to enforce such manifestly illegal jail sentences.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Thiranagama, above, faults the Magistrates\u2019 Courts of imposing many other such illegal sentences and dubs them as flagrant violations of law and gross infringement of fundamental rights of prisoners.<\/p>\n

The question is, what is the Attorney General, the higher judicial authorities and the Human Rights Commissions<\/a><\/span> doing about it?<\/p>\n

Malinda’s blog\u00a0http:\/\/malindawords.blogspot.co.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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