News
Are they dead or alive: Mahara prisoners’ loved ones wait in limbo
View(s):- No decision yet on whether COVID-infected prisoners killed in riot to be cremated or buried
- Rights activist voices concern that cremating bodies will destroy evidence
Family members waiting for news on of their loved ones
D.K Premalatha
The families whose kith and kin are believed to have been killed during the Mahara prison riot on Friday, are waiting for further information as a court order regarding the issue whether burials will be allowed has been postponed for next Friday.
The Wattala Magistrate had earlier directed that an official of the Attorney General’s Department be present at the hearing on Friday to take a decision regarding the motion filed by rights activist for prisoners, Attorney at law Senaka Perera who sought an order that those killed in the prison riot should not be cremated though some of them were confirmed to be COVID-19 cases.
N.S. Perera
However, a representative of the AG’s department was not present and the hearing was postponed until December 11.
Mr. Perera, president of the Committee for Protecting the Rights of Prisoners, has been voicing concern about cremating the deceased COVID infected prisoners as that would destroy evidence.
On Friday close to 50 distraught mothers and wives of inmates waited outside the Mahara prison, hoping to hear some news of their beloved ones as most of them were unaware of their whereabouts. They were demanding that police officers reveal the names of those deceased and injured.
D.K Premalatha, (57) from Sapugaskanda, Pattivila said her son was supposed to have been bailed out a day after the unrest.
“He called me from the prison around 8.30 pm the day before the incident and said they are hiding and for me to go to Mahara courts to bail him out the next day. Due to the virus they did not bring him to court, so I went next day back to the prison to get my son out. I asked the prison guards. They got my contact number and told they will inform me but it has been four days and no one contacted me,” she cried.
Senaka Perera
N.S Perera,(43) from Kelaniya has been searching for her husband’s whereabouts for many days, he was to be bailed a day after the incident occured.
“My husband has been in prison since June 5, and a court case was heard without him. So I went to courts regularly. When I went to meet the lawyer again to get bail a day after the incident took place, the lawyer asked me to first go and verify whether her husband was alive or not. His name was not in the injured list in front of Ragama Hospital. I checked the photographs of those who had died. But his picture was not there too.
Meanwhile prison officials and other government authorities were estimating the damages caused to the Mahara prisons.
Pix and text by Amila Praboda Gamage