The incident at the Mahara prison that killed several inmates and injured many was completely in violation of the Prisons Ordinance, Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa told Parliament yesterday (3).
Premadasa also pointed out that the House has not been fully made aware of how the Mahara prison inmates contracted the coronavirus.
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa pointed out, “Yesterday, a group of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya MPs visited the Mahara Prison. We need to be well aware of the Prisons Ordinance in relation to the recent incident.
Article 66 Section 68, Section 77 and Section 4 of this Ordinance clearly define how prisoners should be treated. The Mahara prison incident violated all these articles and more. Some claimed that the Mahara incident was activated by an invisible hand. Others said that it was due to consuming a drug. Others said that it was planned to disrepute the country internationally.This House has not been informed about moving 120 detainees from Welikada to Mahara in violation of COVID-19 regulations which has ultimately created a COVID-19 cluster that included 183 inmates of Mahara prison.The Deputy Director in charge of inmates’ health is the one who sent the inmates from Welikada to Mahara. That is the truth. That is why these clusters were created. That is how this tragedy was created.I would like to thank Minister Ali Sabry for appointing a committee of inquiry to probe this matter. We believe that an independent and impartial investigation will be carried out to find the root cause of this tragedy. We will press for that. We will never allow a culture of murder, state terrorism or a culture of killing to be created in this country.There is a rule of law.Everyone must be committed to follow it.”