Amendment contemplated to Criminal Procedure Code :

Duty Attorney at Police stations

* Former AG expresses views in Geneva

* Reiterates zero tolerance policy on torture

Mohan Peiris

Sri Lanka while reiterating that it has a zero tolerance policy on torture, yesterday said that the country is in the process of studying a major amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code to provide a Duty Attorney scheme at every police division. The government is studying the possibility of introducing this scheme on the lines of Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) in the UK providing legal services as a mandatory right at Police stations to every suspect within a short time of arrest. Addressing the 19th session of United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, former Attorney General Mohan Peiris PC said that Sri Lanka has a constitutional guarantee against torture.

“This is cogently reflected in the fact that we have a constitutional guarantee against torture,” he added.

The Former Attorney General said that the government has also adopted the provisions of the Convention Against Torture into the local legislature Act and several prosecutions have been filed under this law against law enforcement officers too.

He said that the country has a National Police Commission which has exclusively been mandated to hear public complaints. Peiris said that the country is sensitive to the urgent need to protect civil rights particularly the protection against the torture.

“We are confident that we will succeed in our common stand against torture and uphold human rights as pledged in our National Action Plan,” he said.

He alerted the UNHRC not to fall prey to those who masquerade behind the readymade cloak of Human rights defender creating political havoc wherever they are at the behest of their political masters in their execution of collateral agendas.

“The alert regarding Sri Lanka is pure conjecture and surmise and made with singular purpose of causing prejudice to any constructive engagement between Sri Lanka and UNHRC, he said.