A new bill before Sri Lanka’s parliament that grants the authorities sweeping arbitrary powers to tackle ‘organized crime’ and deny suspects’ human rights should be immediately withdrawn, Amnesty International said today.
The Prevention of Organised Crimes bill, tabled in Sri Lanka’s parliament on 6 October, contains provisions that would make confessions extracted under duress admissible in court, enable the detention of suspects for up to two years without trial, and ban the media from reporting on court proceedings. The bill also confers the police with wide powers to conduct searches without a warrant, and imprison people for not providing information to authorities.
The bill mirrors many elements of Sri Lanka’s repressive Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which has been misused since the 1970s to target minorities and repress dissent.
“This extraordinary bill is the most alarming in a string of repressive laws proposed by the National People’s Power (NPP) government. It reintroduces most of the very worst elements of the PTA and applies them to a wide range of offences,” said Smriti Singh, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director.
We urge the Sri Lankan government to withdraw the bill in its entirety
Smriti Singh, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director
“The bill entrenches impunity and risks reviving the conditions that enabled arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment under the PTA, including the use of coerced statements to secure convictions. It allows what effectively amounts to secret trials and it removes virtually all the safeguards designed to prevent the abuse of police power. The international community, which saw and decried the abuses under the PTA, should shudder.
“We urge the Sri Lankan government to withdraw the bill in its entirety and engage in meaningful public consultations around how to tackle organized crime while protecting human rights.”
The bill also empowers police to obtain personal informati
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