Lawyer-Client privacy violated in Boosa camp, lawyers say

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 June 2007, 16:14 GMT]
Lawyers who have clients in Boosa detention centre, located in Galle in the southern province where political prisoners are detained, allege that they are unable to talk to their clients privately without being closely monitored by officials of Terrorist Intelligence Unit (TIU) located in the premises, legal sources said.

A group of lawyers while on a client visit to Boosa detention camp were surrounded by TIU officials when the lawyers met with their clients. The lawyer-client privacy was violated and the clients were unable to discuss matters related to their cases freely with the lawyers, one of the affected lawyers said.

"We conveyed to our clients that confessions signed by them would be used against them in law courts. We further told our clients to be aware that obtaining confessions using force is not permitted by law and to report such attempts if they occur.

"Such confessions would be rejected in courts if proved it were obtained under duress", one of the lawyers went to Boosa told Colombo media.