Senaka Perera, Attorney-at-Law, Chairman of the Committee to Protect the Rights of Prisoners, says that his organization is ready to raise awareness against the killing of prisoners if the government does not take action as a responsible government when prisoners request the President to save them from Kovid disease.
He says there have been killings, torture and inhumane treatment in prisons for years and in the end no one has done them. Examples include the Welikada incident in Black July 1983, the torture and murder of inmates at the Bindunuwewa work camp, the Kalutara prison incident and the Anuradhapura prison incident. However, he says that a case is pending in court today as his organization intervened in the Welikada prison clash and took the necessary legal action.
Mr. Senaka Perera said that a youth was killed at the Mahara Prison in February-March this year, where prison officials said he had escaped and fallen off a wall and that was the story the prison always told everyone.
He points out that these rulers have not been able to provide even the minimum facilities inside the prisons and that there is no proper diet, medicine or welfare facilities.
He also said that his organization had repeatedly written to the President asking him to provide facilities to these people as human beings, but what was happening day by day was that the condition of the prison inmates was unsatisfactory.
Attorney-at-Law Senaka Perera says that the pardon powers vested in Presidents by the Constitution are being exercised for their personal preferences and that it appears that the powers vested in them are being abused during the tenure of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the current President.
Nissanka Senadhipathi, a friend of the President, is currently campaigning for the rehabilitation of prison inmates, and Senaka has questioned the prisoners’ relationship with outside parties.
He says detainees were imprisoned for crimes committed by the rulers who ruled the country from then to now, and that this situation could not be controlled without addressing this social disparity.
He was speaking to the media today (30) regarding the murder of eight inmates at the Mahara Prison yesterday.
