Amnesty International has called for an urgent and independent investigation into the deaths of two prisoners transferred from Negombo Prison following deadly violence earlier this week, as allegations grow that other transferred inmates have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, Babu Ram Pant, said reports surrounding the deaths and allegations of abuse were "deeply alarming".
"The authorities have a responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of these prisoners," Pant said.
Amnesty called for an immediate investigation into the circumstances surrounding all deaths linked to the prison violence and urged that the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) be granted full access to inmates to assess their well-being.
The organisation also said lawyers must be allowed to visit detained clients, family members should be permitted to see their relatives, and any prisoner requiring medical treatment should receive it without delay.
Amnesty further urged that the Sri Lankan government’s committee investigating the Negombo Prison violence conduct its inquiry in an impartial, independent and transparent manner. The rights group said the inquiry must establish the circumstances that led to the fatal use of force during the clashes.
The statement follows violence inside Negombo Prison on 5 and 6 July that left at least 28 people dead, including at least seven prison officials, and injured more than 100 others.
On 6 July, the Sri Lankan government announced the appointment of a three-member committee to investigate the violence.
On 8 July, local media reported that one inmate transferred from Negombo Prison to Boossa High Security Prison had died following what was described as a "sudden illness". On the same day, another inmate transferred to Agunukolapelessa Prison also died.
Amnesty noted that the Committee to Protect Rights of Prisoners had alleged that transferred prisoners had been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.
The Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners said it had received credible information that inmates moved from Negombo to other facilities, including Welikada Prison, were being subjected to severe beatings and mistreatment by prison officers. The Committee urged authorities to immediately halt the alleged assaults and ensure the protection of prisoners transferred after the unrest.
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has also expressed concern over the allegations.
In a statement issued on 8 July, the HRCSL said it had directed the Commissioner General of Prisons to take immediate measures to protect inmates and ensure full cooperation with the Commission’s investigation into the Negombo violence and subsequent incidents at other prison facilities.
The Commission said it was seriously concerned over allegations that prisoners transferred from Negombo Prison to several other prisons had been subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment. It also raised concern over the reported death of an inmate in custody and the denial of access to an HRCSL Rapid Response Unit that visited Welikada Prison on the night of 7 July. The HRCSL instructed the Commissioner General of Prisons to ensure unrestricted access for HRCSL officers to all prisons, protect inmates from reprisals, preserve relevant evidence, conduct prompt and impartial investigations, and fully cooperate with the Commission’s probe.
Amnesty said the latest deaths and torture allegations underscore longstanding structural problems within Sri Lanka’s penal system.
The organisation pointed to concerns raised by the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture following a visit to Sri Lanka last month. According to Amnesty, the UN body warned again over prolonged pretrial detention, overcrowding and inadequate prison conditions, while noting that there had been no meaningful improvement since its previous visit seven years earlier.
The Negombo violence has already exposed the scale of overcrowding inside Sri Lanka’s prison system. Negombo Prison was reportedly holding around 2,400 inmates despite having a designed capacity of only 650.
Following the clashes, hundreds of inmates were transferred to prisons across the island, including facilities in the North-East. The transfer of inmates has raised concern that authorities are redistributing the crisis rather than addressing the deeper failures that produced it.
Those concerns have intensified after the deaths of transferred prisoners and the allegations that inmates were assaulted after being moved from Negombo.
Sri Lanka’s detention system has long been marked by overcrowding, prolonged remand detention, torture allegations, custodial deaths and repeated failures of accountability.