Pressure from Human Rights Watch on the European Union over the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka has prompted the government to pledge reforms in recent weeks, that is after the human rights organization called for the union, to set a clear time frame for Sri Lanka to comply with the commitment in human rights, and to link that file with commercial benefits and fees on Sri Lanka. The human rights organization stressed the need to evaluate and review Sri Lankan reforms periodically, to reach their implementation on the ground. Jurists said that a committee was recently formed to review the country’s prevention of terrorism law. It is reported that the law was first used in Sri Lanka in 1988, which the Minister of Defense can without any kind of justification issue arrest warrants and bring people into his detention indefinitely.
Interview with (Arulingam Swasthika – Attorney- At- Law working in the field of human rights, Former Project Manager Legal Aid Commission of Sri Lanka): “Under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the Defense Minister can in his thinking without any kind of justification issue detention orders and bring people under his custody. Not under the Judicial Custody, under an Executive Custody and keep those for EIGHTEEN Months before that person can be transferred to under the Judicial Custody. Under the PTA a person can remain indefinitely in detention and his case does not even have to be called for trials more than TEN years, we have cases like that. We have cases where a person who has been behind bars for FIFTEEN years has been later released as innocent because that is the nature of PTA.”
Interview with (Mr. M.A. Sumanthiran, Member of Parliament, President Council – Attorney-at-Law):
“The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) has been used against the Sinhala youth in 1988-1989, we saw how that was used against a 2nd JVP uprising. And after the Easter Bomb Attack in 2019, it is being used against the Muslim Community, several important personalities have been arrested and held, such as Lawyer Hijaz Hezbulla, the Poet Anaf, former Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, and several others, even Azath Sally and others have been now made to suffer under the PTA. The PTA provides that there can be indefinite detention ordered by the Magistrate until the conclusion of the trial. Our courts have interpreted that to say that there must be a trial in contemplation, there must be a High Court trial and it is only until the end of the trial, end of that trial can a person be detained. But before that, there can be an Administrative Detention by the President, and only now a review committee has been appointed, and we don’t know what the review committee will do. Our demand which has been there for several decades now and now with which all governments agreed also is that the PTA must be repealed in total.”