Prisoners unbowed

In a welcome development, Sri Lanka’s highest court has ordered the Prisons Commissioner General to ensure the eight inmates who have brought a Fundamental Rights lawsuit against Minister Lohan Ratwatte are given adequate protection. This week marks a month since Ratwatte, then Minister for Prison Management stormed the Anuradhapura prison brandishing a pistol and threatening Tamil detainees. In the absence of accountability and action against his egregious and criminal behaviour, eight prisoners he threatened in Anuradhapura have filed petitions in the Supreme Court pleading that their fundamental rights were violated by Minister Ratwatte.

A person with even the most rudimentary knowledge of Sri Lankan politics knows that the prisoners have virtually put their lives on the line by filing legal action against this particular Minister. In a country where custodial deaths and prison massacres are the norm rather than the exception, the Supreme Court has made an important intervention to protect the prisoners who have come before the Court.

The petition reveals details about the incident hitherto unknown. The prisoners have accused Minister Ratwatte of forcing them to stand in a semi-circle and then ordering them to kneel before him. The prisoners told the Supreme Court in their petition that the Minister had abused them in Sinhala, claiming that the President had given him (Ratwatte) ‘all the power in relation to PTA prisoners – he could either release them or shoot them dead’. The petition states that Ratwatte held a pistol in his hand and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. All eight prisoners who have gone to Court against the Minister are detainees under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

A month after this most heinous violation by a member of the Government which has an obligation under international law and the Sri Lankan Constitution to protect those in their custody, the police are yet to even record a statement from Minister Ratwatte. After resigning as Prisons minister under duress, Ratwatte continues to hold the Gem and Jewellery portfolio and has suffered little fallout in stature within the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration. Public Security Minister Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara, who routinely threatens to crackdown on student protestors, trade unionists and Government critics, is reportedly waiting for a complaint to be filed against Minister Ratwatte before he orders the police to act. 

The Commissioner General of Prisons claims he is unaware of Ratwatte’s little ‘storming of the bastille’ enactment one month ago. The Prison authorities have claimed there is no CCTV installed inside the prison complex. All convenient excuses when a Government is seeking to brush criminal activity by one of its own under the carpet. As for Sri Lanka’s ever-vigilant main Opposition, the statement condemning Ratwatte’s alleged conduct inside the prison by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa failed to even name the Minister concerned. It is a testament to the courage of the eight Anuradhapura prison inmates that they have petitioned the Supreme Court against a powerful Minister, who commands the deafening silence of law enforcement, the political leadership and even the main Opposition. 

It is laudable that the Supreme Court has recognised the risks the prisoners have taken to seek judicial redress and ordered their protection in State custody. Having failed to protect inmates from the boorish and criminal conduct of a Government Minister, the Prisons Commissioner General and his offices have a bounden duty and obligation to heed the order of the country’s apex Court and protect the petitioner-inmates from reprisals while in custody. The Courts must make it understood that these officials will be held accountable if harm should befall these petitioners.

Minister Ratwatte and his conduct are a symptom of a larger disease afflicting the entire country. The impunity enjoyed by the ruling elite is now absolute. Judicial redress is often weak or inadequate and does not offer true recourse. For this reason, even the barest acknowledgment that the prisoners who petitioned Court against a powerful Minister might be at risk of harm offers a rare glimmer of hope, that checks and balances might still be in play, even if they are hanging by the barest of threads.