SL ‘Manipulative Justice’ exposed once again in Tamil political prisoners’ case: Sivapalan
The SL Judiciary controlled by the unitary State of ‘Sri Lanka’ has a track record of transferring cases away from being heard in front of Tamil Judges in the North-East, especially in the cases of politically motivated assassinations, murders and ethnic massacres against Eezham Tamils, says exiled Attorney-at-Law K. Sivapalan, who was the deputy chairperson of North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR). “The SL Judiciary has been transferring the cases away from the High Courts in the North-East, either to acquit the accused Sinhala soldiers or to punish the detained Tamil political prisoners. This is ‘Manipulative Justice’, Mr Sivapalan commented expressing solidarity with the Tamil political prisoners, who are waging a hunger-strike at Anuradhapura prison.
Mr Sivapalan explained how the SL legal system was manipulated, particularly in the cases that were before the High Courts to acquit all Sinhala soldiers accused in the cases of Kumarapuram massacre and in the case of the massacre of Action Farm workers.
K Sivapalan
“But, in the case of Magistrates Courts, if I remember correctly, certain number of Grama Sevaka Divisions are gazetted under a Magistrates Courts of the area, not away from the administrative district,” Mr Sivapalan said.
“We all feel that justice has been done in the Vithya case. Her murder took place within Northern Province and the case was heard in Jaffna within the Northern Province.”
In the case of the High Courts, it is legally possible to hear the cases in any High Court in the island irrespective of where the crime was committed, Sivapalan said.
“Using this provision, cases that could be heard in Tamil areas where Tamils are involved and the crime is said to be committed within Tamil areas, could be heard in Sinhala speaking areas before a Sinhala Judge.”
The modus operandi is the same in the case of three Tamil political prisoners. Instead of allowing the case to be heard at Vavuniya High Court, it has been transferred to be heard before a Sinhala Judge in Anurahapura Special Court.
“Normally, the Judges there would easily admit the confessions said to have been made by the accused voluntarily, but in most cases taken after torturing or under duress, to be used against them as evidence to convict them,” Mr Sivapalan said.
“On the other hand, in the case of massacre of Tamils in Kumaara-puram village near Ki’liveddi (within Trincomalee High Court area) by the members of the SL armed forces (all Sinhalese), the case was taken up before a Sinhala Jury in Anuradhapura and they were all acquitted,” he further said.
In another instance, that of the Moothoor ACF 17 (16 Tamils and 1 Muslim) massacre, which was allegedly committed by the SL Army, when the Tamil Magistrate was about to deliver the verdict, he was ordered by the SL Judicial Service Commission to forward the file to Anuradhapura Magistrate Courts at the last moment of the Inquest.
“These are the travesties of the legal system in the island, but our Tamil MPs, the spokespersons of whom are all top lawyers, never take up these matters in the SL Parliament or other international forum,” Mr Sivapalan said.
Mr Sivapalan, who was serving as a local member of the SLMM, left the island soon after the Scandinavian ceasefire monitors had pulled out.
NESoHR, a body constituted during the internationally mediated peace process as the human rights body of the nation of Eezham Tamils, functioned in the Tamil homeland from July 2004 till January 2009 amidst targeted assassinations by genocidal Sri Lanka.
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