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September 1974 pointing out that the caning of prisoners cannot but be seen as a violation of article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that no one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Sri Lanka
Of the 18,000 young prisoners detained after the insurgency, staged by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in April 1971, some 2,000 remain in deten- tion today. Prisoners were arrested under the Emergency Regulations, but as of 31 December 1974, 192 have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 2 to 20 years by the Criminal Justice Commission, a judicial committee set up especially to try those accused of complicity in the 1971 events, before which the normal rules of criminal procedure do not apply. At the end of January 1975, 391 prisoners were still to appear before the commission.
In January 1975, Amnesty International sent a mission to Sri Lanka to investigate the prospects of trial and release of prisoners held under the Emergency Regulations. Louis Blom-Cooper, an English lawyer, accompanied by the researcher for South Asia, Yvonne Terlingen, had extensive discussions with the Minister of Law and other senior officials in the Law and Prison Departments who cooperated in every way with the AI delegates. They visited Welikada and New Magazine Prison in Colombo, as well as Pallekelle Camp near Kandy and attended proceedings before the Criminal Justice Commission. A report was prepared following the mission and presented to the Prime Minister, Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, on 8 May 1975.
The report argued that standards of criminal justice should never, as had happened with the Criminal Justice Commission, be compromised. It said that the abandonment of longstanding legal procedures - such as the exclusion of hearsay, the inadmissability of confessions and the partial shifting of the onus of proof, to mention a few – jeopardized public regard for independence of the judiciary and subjected political offenders to a kind of second class system of justice. The report recommended that prisoners be tried before fully independent courts and that the Criminal Justice Commission Act be repealed. It also called for the repeal of any measures that discriminated against political prisoners.
Under the Emergency Regulations, prisoners can still be held for a period of 15 days in police custody without any kind of judicial control or access to legal assistance. This provision has given rise to a number of allegations that acts of police brutality were being committed during the 15-day period. While the AI mission was not in a position to verify the allegations, AI submitted in its report that there was no longer a need for detention in police custody without judicial control. It recommended its abolition and that prisoners be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of their arrest.
Some prisoners are still being detained on suspicion of having committed offences punishable under the Emergency Regulations. A very small number of these prisoners appeared to have been detained without trial or charge since 1971. The report recommended that an inquiry be instituted into all penal establishments in Sri Lanka to investigate the cases of these prisoners, with a view to their immediate trial or release without further delay if no specific