Scotland Yard probe hits snag
British detectives seek assurance that Raviraj case won’t end up in death penalty
By Ayesha R. Rafiq

Detectives from Britain’s Scotland Yard may not arrive in Sri Lanka after all to assist in investigations into the murder of Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj. The reason – a dispute over a Scotland Yard demand that the suspects will not be handed down the death sentence upon conviction. The Yard wants such a provision incorporated in a Memorandum of Understanding. However, the Government is unable to agree to such a provision since it would be illegal. The Sunday Times learnt that all other clauses of the proposed MoU have been finalized.

Raviraj

The Scotland Yard’s demand is in accordance with the British Government’s policy of opposing the death sentence. Hence, as a rule detectives are debarred from undertaking investigations to help foreign Governments without obtaining a prior assurance.
Under Sri Lankan law, charges of murder and conspiracy to murder carry a mandatory death sentence. Hence it is pointed out that any formal assurance to depart from laid down provisions in the law would constitute an illegal act.

Government officials are still hopeful they can persuade Scotland Yard to agree. This stems from their belief that despite death penalties being handed down in a number of convictions, there has been a de facto moratorium since 1974 on the implementation of death sentence. However, there has still been no response from Scotland Yard on this matter. Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga vowed to invoke provisions in the law to make the death penalty mandatory after the murder of High Court judge Sarath Ambeypitiya.

In terms of provisions in the MoU already agreed upon, Scotland Yard will not engage in any criminal investigations. Instead they will only provide expert technical and professional support where local technology or expertise is not available. They will also determine whether the local investigations to date have been carried out in a proper and professional manner and offer corrective advice.