Sri Lanka: community-based defender arrested for a statement
Event- Country
- Sri Lanka
- Initial Date
- Feb 14, 2022
- Event Description
The Criminal Investigations Department on Monday (14) arrested Civil Activist Shehan Malaka Gamage, from Panadura.
Police Spokesperson SSP Attorney-at-Law Nihal Thalduwa told News 1st that Gamage was arrested for a comment he made with regard to the Easter Sunday attacks, at a recent media briefing.
He was recently summoned to the CID and a statement was recorded as well, on the same matter.
The Criminal Investigations Department had sought advice from the Attorney General and upon instructions received the CID arrested Shehan Malaka Gamage, noting that he had committed an offense, said the Police Spokesperson.
Immediately after the easter attacks, Shehan had helped mobilize a blood donation campaign for those who have been injured. This was also done to help avoid violent and extremist reactions against any community. Three days after the easter attacks, on 24th April 2019, he had served as a liason between the presidential secretariat and office of the Archbishop of Colombo, to develop a national plan of response. He also played a leading role on social media in trying to calm down emotions of affected persons and Catholic youth, particularly to prevent extremist and hate speech online. He has been a strong advocate of truth and justice for easter attacks, and in November 2019, stated before media that the easter attacks could be a political conspiracy. In recent months, he has been a strong advocate of seeking justice for easter attacks, especially in social media. He has also been outspoken about the need for truth and justice in front of media, and one of the more explosive interventions was on 17th August 2021, which received wide media coverage (https://youtu.be/3krYcBhQKeQ.com). He was also active in promoting “Black Sunday” protest on 7th March 2021 and “Black Flag” protest on 21st August 2021, which were held under the leadership of Archbishop of Colombo, demanding truth and justice for easter attacks. His activism continued even after 8 days of intense interrogation (see section 4 below). On 15th November 2021, Shehan made a public statement that the present Minister of Public Security has direct responsibility for easter attacks, that he had given evidence about this when he was summoned to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police and that the Minister would be in remand prison if these evidences had been investigated.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression
- Offline
- Right to liberty and security
- Freedom of expression
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 6.712431604907936
Longitude: 79.90710128259755
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 14 February 2021, Shehan Malaka Gamage, community-based defender, was arrested by the police over a statement he made on the Easter 2019 attack in Panadura, Sri Lanka.