Sri Lanka: An appeal to save a young Tamil complainant

February 14, 2011

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

Sri Lanka: An appeal to save the life of a young Tamil complainant in a bribery case against a police officer.

Devarathnam Yogendra ( 28 ) is the complainant in a bribery case against IP Wijesuriya of the Hatton Police Station, who has been indicted on a charge of obtaining bribes. This charge has been filed on the basis of a complaint made by Yogendra on November 6, 2007 and it is alleged that a decoy from the Bribery Commission arrested IP Wijesuriya immediately after he accepted a bribe.

Ever since the arrest of this police officer Devarathnam Yogendra has faced several attempts on his life, according to several complaints that he has made to the police, including the Inspector General of Police and other authorities including the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.

Yogendra also complains that several fabricated charges have been filed against him, one of which was dismissed by the Magistrate on January 11, 2011. Another such case is scheduled to be taken up on March 1, 2011.

On January 15, 2011, Yogendra faced another serious threat on his life as police officers picked him up from his home, handcuffed and blindfolded him and took him to a cemetery. Here he was assaulted and told that he would be killed if he acted against the police.

Yogendra is afraid to go home and is now in hiding.

He tells his story in a video here

The Asian Human Rights Commission urge you to intervene in the case of Yogendra to prevent an assassination by the police and to help provide him protection.

Please see the latest Urgent Appeal on the case and call on the relevant authorities: AHRC-UAU-006-2011

For further information on the case, see previous statements and articles:

AHRC-STM-009-2011 , AHRC-ART-006-2011 , AHRC-UAC-007-2011

ENDS

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