Kalutara prison inquiry concludes
[TamilNet, Friday, 24 April 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The inquiry into the death of two Tamil and one Muslim detainees - Shanmugarajah Sivanesan, Mutthulingam Dharamalingam and Mohammed Jehan - at the Kalutara prison on December 12, 1997 was concluded yesterday. The Commission of Inquiry appointed by Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga, was headed by High Court judge Raja Fernando and comprised two others.
It held sittings at the Kalutara prison from February 14 and recorded evidence from 61 witnesses. Evidence transpiring from the inquiry points to tension and acrimony between the Sinhala and Tamil detainees prevailing in the past and that enraged Sinhala prisoners had attacked their Tamil counterparts on December 12. There was also evidence alleging that if prison authorities had not taken such a lackadaisical attitude about the protection of the Tamil prisoners, the attack could have been prevented.
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