Only the guilty should fear extraterritorial jurisdiction

Last week the Metropolitan Police in the United Kingdom arrested a Sri Lankan man in connection with the murder of journalist Mylvaganam Nimalarajan in 2000. The development is significant for a couple of reasons. 

Firstly, it is an indication that there are no statutes of limitations for crimes since the arrest comes 22 years after the slaying of the Jaffna-based journalist. Secondly and more significantly it presents a prospect of extraterritorial jurisdiction, for a crime committed in a different country where the victim and the alleged perpetrator are foreign nations, being prosecuted in a third country. 

Nimalarajan was killed on the night of 19 October 2000, when a group of unidentified gunmen shot the journalist through the window of his study, where he was working on an article, and threw a grenade into the home before fleeing the premises. The attack occurred during curfew hours in a high-security zone in central Jaffna town. Army officers were summoned to the house, and they took the journalist to Jaffna Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The journalist’s parents and his 11-year-old nephew were seriously injured in the attack.

At the time of his death Nimalarajan reported for various news organisations, including the BBC’s Tamil and Sinhala-language services, the Tamil-language daily Virakesari, and the Sinhala-language weekly Ravaya. Local journalists suspect that Nimalarajan’s reporting on vote-rigging and intimidation in Jaffna during the 2000 parliamentary elections may have led to his murder.

It is significant that it is the ‘War Crimes Team’ of the London Metropolitan Police that arrested a 48-year-old man in connection to Nimalarajan’s murder. Though his identity was not revealed by the UK police it was reported in the Tamil media that the individual belonged to one of the then operational paramilitary groups which is also represented in the current Government.

The investigations in the Sri Lankan judicial system regarding Nimalarajan’s murder dragged for over 15 years until the Jaffna Magistrate Court dissolved proceedings in 2021 on the instructions of the Attorney General. The main suspect in the case was released. Insufficient evidence, technical and procedural errors, and the filing process by the AG have often led to such acquittals of the accused leaving the victims and their families without any justice in the Sri Lankan judicial system. At least 44 Tamil media personnel are recorded to have been killed during the war including media employees, and none of their killers have faced justice.

The proceedings of the case in the UK should be of particular interest to Sri Lanka which has been facing numerous calls for accountability for crimes committed during the war. Unlike most of these crimes committed in the context of the war, which may sometimes require specific legal provisions provided within the framework of International Humanitarian Law, the crime of murder does not require any additional provisions than what is provided in the country’s Penal Code. 

The fact that the Sri Lankan legal system has failed to prosecute the accused and bring an end to the judicial process even after 22 years is a clear indictment on the failure of the system and either its unwillingness or inability to deliver justice. It then presents the question as to whether the Sri Lankan judicial system can then handle allegations within the context of war, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity, when it cannot deliver justice for a straightforward case concerning murder.

This is significant since the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelete has been calling for extraterritorial jurisdiction since 2020 for crimes committed during the war citing the inability and unwillingness of the local judicial system to do so. The Nimalarajan case which will now move to UK courts will set an important precedent in this regard.