Court orders detained UN workers to be produced before Medical Officer

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 July 2009, 00:04 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court Thursday directed the State to produce, before the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO), the two workers of the United Nations agency now being detained by the Sri Lanka police, and to submit the medical report within two weeks. Two UN workers, Charles Ravindran Navaratnam, 45, and Kanthasamy Soundararajan, 35, were arrested on June 13 when they were fleeing into the government controlled area from Vanni. Since then they are being detained without appearence before a court of law or before the Judicial Medical Officer, legal sources in Colombo said.

Two Fundamental Rights Violation petition filed on behalf of the two UN workers came up for inquiry before a three-member bench of the Supreme Court Thursday.

Senior Counsel Mr.K.S.Ratnavel on behalf of the petitioners submitted to court that the two UN workers were severely assaulted while in detention but were not produced before the JMO or in court.

The Bench was comprised of Chief Justice Asoka de Silva, Justices Nimal Gamini Amaratunge and P.A. Ratnaike.

The Officer-in-charge of the Borella Police, Mahesh Banda, the Inspector General Police (IGP), the Defence Secretary, and Attorney General were cited as respondents in the petition.