News
SC dismisses four more FR petitions by Mirihana protesters
View(s):By Ranjith Padmasiri
The Supreme Court dismissed four fundamental rights applications filed by those who protested outside the private residence of former President Gotabhaya Rajapakse at Pangiriwatte in Mirihana in 2022, while it granted Leave to Proceed for four similar petitions.
Eleven FR petitions were filed following the protests, which started peacefully as a candlelit vigil at the Jubilee Post junction on March 31, 2022. Four of them were dismissed last Thursday and three were dismissed earlier.
The respondents named in the applications are the Chief of Defence Staff, General Shavendra Silva, the Army Commander, Lieutenant General Vikum Liyanage, the Inspector General of Police, the Commandant of the Special Task Force (STF), and several other senior police officers.
During four days of submissions, the petitioners argued that their fundamental rights were infringed because they were illegally arrested and tortured during the protests.
Senior State Counsel (SSC) Shaminda Wickrema told the court that the petitioners had committed various illegalities, including being members of an unlawful assembly, damaging public property, and causing serious injuries to more than 60 STF and police officers.
He also asked the court to dismiss the petitions because they had been filed well after the stipulated time frame. He alleged that during this time the petitioners had made up evidence to be used in their applications, thus resulting in many misrepresentations and lies.
Lengthy media coverage was shown, and a presentation was made to the Court on what the state counsel called illegal acts committed by protesters on that date, causing harm to the STF and police officers.
Previously, submissions were made on how a small group of officers had successfully brought the situation under control and saved the life of the president, causing minimum injuries to the crowd.
It was argued that if this had not been done, the events on that day could have ended up with results similar to what happened to “Muammar Gadaffi” of Libya.
When queried by the court as to how the injuries were caused to some of the petitioners, State Counsel Wickrema said the injuries could have been caused by the violent acts of the protestors themselves. He pointed to the presence of a group who were from neither the armed forces nor the police and said they could also be responsible for the injuries. The CID was conducting investigations to ascertain the identity of this group, the SSC said.
In response, lawyers Thishya Weragoda and Thanuka Nandasiri, appearing on behalf of some of the petitioners, said they had initially gone to the Human Rights Commission and their applications were still pending.
They also said their clients were taking part in the protest peacefully, and they had been arrested and beaten without any reason. They also informed the court that a primary case had been established before the court, showing that the petitioners’ rights had been violated.
When the bench questioned SSC Wickrema on three other connected matters that had been dismissed earlier by a different bench of the Supreme Court, he said he had made the same submissions in those matters as well, resulting in them being dismissed previously.
After a lengthy hearing for four days, the bench comprising Justices Vijith Malalgoda and Yasantha Kodagoda gave the order.
In addition to the three petitions that were already dismissed along with the dismissal of four petitions this Thursday, the remaining four petitions were fixed for argument on February 28 next year.
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