Today the topics which people focus on when discussing specially the civil society are the long term detention of LTTE suspects and former army commander Sarath Fonseka. Yesterday it was reported in the media that, the former chief of Saman Devole in Ratnapura who was convicted for the murder of his mistress and sentenced to life in imprisonment, was released on a special pardon by the president.
by Harshi C. Perera
(November 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The criminal division of the Moratuwa police arrested U. A. Somawathi and produced here before the court on February 28, 2003. She was charged with possession of 1100mg of heroin and selling 100mg of heroin. Her case, number 51443, is still pending at the Moratuwa Magistrate Court. She is still a pre trial detainee at the women’s ward in Welikada prison. Her prisoner number is 333.
On June 27, 2003, the court ordered the Government Analyst to produce her report. But it was not produced until December 13, 2004. According to the report the first packet contained 25mg of heroine while the second packet contained 228mg of heroine.
After that what was happened? On December 27, 2004 the court sought the Attorney Generals instructions for the case. Through November 16, 2010 the court sought the instructions of the AG for another 63 times without receiving a response. The AG has caused a court delay of about 6 years now. On January 23, 2006 Somawathi made a special appeal through the prison authorities to no avail.
Today the topics which people focus on when discussing specially the civil society are the long term detention of LTTE suspects and former army commander Sarath Fonseka. Yesterday it was reported in the media that, the former chief of Saman Devole in Ratnapura who was convicted for the murder of his mistress and sentenced to life in imprisonment, was released on a special pardon by the president.
Everybody talks about court delays and millions of dollars are committed to remedying the dire delayed justice situation that Sri Lanka faces. Even if some people have benefitted, how can we say that justice has been served when Somawathi remains so drastically affected by the court delays?
Somawathi has been in the remand prison for more than 7 years. She deserves justice. If she cannot get a fair hearing, our criminal justice system is nothing except something beautifully written in law books.
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