Features

Anti-Terrorism Bill aimed at creating fascist dictatorship – III

Published

3 years ago

2023/04/7

Thilina Walpola

By Kalyananda Tiranagama

(Continued from yesterday)

Declaration of Prohibited Places

On a recommendation made by the IGP, the President may publish a Gazette notification declaring any public place or any other location as a Prohibited Place, for the purposes of this Act. Prohibitions imposed may include entry without permission, taking photographs, video recording and making sketches of the place. – S. 85,

Wilful contravention of a Prohibition Order by entering or remaining in a prohibited place is an offence punishable with imprisonment for a period not exceeding 3 years and fine not exceeding Rs. 300,000.Any police officer may seize any movable property used for or concerned in committing any offence under this section. On conviction of the offender the Magistrate may confiscate such property. – S. 86

Defence Secretary armed with arbitrary power overriding the Judiciary to detain suspects till the conclusion of the trial

A new provision which was not in the PTA or in the CTB, has been added to the ATB giving arbitrary powers to the Secretary of the Ministry of Defence enabling him to order detention of terrorist suspects belonging certain selected categories facing High Court trials till the conclusion of the trial. It appears to be a provision added with a view to achieve a political objective rather than a legal requirements.It is not the Law, AG or the Judiciary that decides whether a suspect is to be kept in detention till the conclusion of the Trial, but the Defence Secretary.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or any other law, the Secretary of the Ministry of Defence may, if he is of opinion that it is necessary or expedient to do so in the interest of national security and public order, make Order that an accused remanded by the High Court, be kept in the custody of any authority in such place and subject to such conditions as may be determined by him; his Order is only subjected to directions given by the High Court to ensure a fair trial; On the communication of his Order to the High Court and the Commissioner General of Prisons, it is the duty of the Commissioner General to deliver the custody of such person to the authority specified in such Order and the provisions in the Prisons Ordinance shall not apply to such person in custody. – S. 73

PTA did not contain this type of arbitrary, draconian provisions overriding the law, powers of the Court and the AG in respect of suspects indicted before the High Court.

Silencing Critics of Govt by Penalising them through Administrative Process without being charged in or convicted by a Court of LawUnder the PTA, the Attorney General has no option but to indict a person who has committed an offence under the PTA if evidence is available showing the commission of the offence.

Under ATB, the Attorney General can suspend or differ the institution of proceedings against a person alleged to have committed an offence under the Act for a period not exceeding 20 years if the suspect is agreeable to fulfil conditions laid down by the AG. – S. 71

It appears that this a ruse to be adopted to silence the persons engaging in struggles, agitations and campaigns against the Govt by compelling them to admit in public that they have done something that should not have been done and subjecting them to public humiliation and preventing them from participation in any future anti-govt political activities under the threat of being prosecuted years later with offences punishable with long term jail sentences running into 10 – 15 years if they fail to comply with the conditions imposed by the AG.

On application of the AG, High Court shall order the person alleged to have committed the offence to appear before Court, notify such person of the conditions imposed and provide him an opportunity to be heard and consent to the conditions imposed;

If such person fulfils the conditions imposed during the period given for fulfilling such conditions, the AG shall not institute criminal proceedings against the person alleged to have committed the offence. If the person fails to comply with the conditions without a valid excuse, AG may institute criminal proceedings against such person after the lapse of the period given to fulfil the conditions.

Conditions for suspension or deferment of institution of criminal proceedings

The following are the Conditions for consideration of suspension or deferment of institution of criminal proceedings against a suspect:

a. to publicly express remorse or apology before the High Court, using a text issued by the AG:

* In effect this will amount to pleading guilty, though the suspect is not yet charged;

b. paying reparation to the victims of the offence, as specified by the AG;

* This may not be applicable as in most of the cases, there will be no victims:

c. to participate in a specified program of rehabilitation;

d. to engage in specified community or social service;

* This will have a demoralising or humiliating effect on the suspects as most of them will be leading personal in trade unions, professional associations or social organizations when they are sent to a rehabilitation facility with other undesirable elements like drug offenders, or beggars; or required to engage in community or social service work like sweeping roads or cleaning public parks or other public places for 3 – 6 weeks;

e. to publicly undertake to refrain from committing an offence under the Act;

f. to refrain from committing any indictable offence, or act of breach of peace.

* Though breach of peace is not an indictable offence, every public protest, demonstration, agitational campaign with the participation of large group of people may result in acts of breach of peace.

* AG may impose a condition requiring the suspect to give an undertaking to refrain from committing an offence under the Act or any act involving breach of peace for 20 years, He may remain a virtual prisoner for life being unable to participate in any public protest campaign. This will operate like a binding order imposed by a Court of law on a criminal convicted of and sentenced for a criminal offence.

* This may result in subjecting the suspect to long time mental torture as he has to live in constant fear that he may be indicted under this Act any within that period of 20 years for the offence he is alleged to have committed punishable with long term jail sentence of 15 – 20 years.

* This Provision will have a deterrent effect on all social activists concerned with the welfare of the country and the people preventing them from participation in social struggles.

Violation of Fundamental Rights

Other than a few additions made further strengthening the existing provisions, the Anti-Terrorism Bill has reintroduced almost all the provisions in the Counter Terrorism Bill which appear to have the effect of curtailing fundamental rights of the people guaranteed by the Constitution.

Freedom of speech and expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association, freedom of engaging in trade union activities, freedom of movement within the country – are fundamental rights of the people guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution. In several fundamental rights cases our Supreme Court has held that people exercise their fundamental right of freedom of expression when they exercise their franchise at elections. At a time when elections are continuously being postponed, public protest against the harmful policies of the government is the only alternative avenue left to the people to express their disapproval in an effective manner.

Every organ of Government including the Judiciary is bound to respect, secure and advance the fundamental rights of the people. Fundamental Rights should not be abridged, restricted or denied except in the manner and to the extent provided in Article 15 of the Constitution. Many of the provisions in these Bills may inevitably result in the restriction, denial and infringement of fundamental rights of the people guaranteed by Articles 11, 12 (1), 13 and 14 (1) (a), (b), (c), (d) and (h) of the Constitution in their enforcement without adequate safeguards.

Most of the objectionable provisions in the Counter Terrorism Bill are found

in Sections 3 (1) (a), (b), (c); 3 (2) (c), (d) (f), (h); 4 (1) (c); 14; 62 and 67 of the Bill. Several of these provisions are liable to be abused without any safeguards to prevent such abuse, resulting in the violation the fundamental right to equality before the law and equal protection of the law, guaranteed by Article 12 (1) of the Constitution.

SC Determination on the Counter Terrorism Bill

Seven Determination Applications have been filed in the Supreme Court in respect of the Counter Terrorism Bill. Six of the Applications appear to have been filed by or on behalf of persons or groups seeking to review the PTA with a view to getting its provisions more relaxed and acceptable to NGO groups sympathetic to religious and racial extremists. Only one application has been filed by an opposition political party concerned with protecting people’s rights. It is sad to note that the Joint Opposition or Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna, BASL or any other professional organizations concerned with erosion of human and democratic rights of the people have failed to come forward to challenge this objectionable Bill.

It appears from the Supreme Court decision on the Bill that the Court has not been invited to examine the objectionable provisions contained in Sections 3 (1) (a), (b), (c); 3 (2) (c), (d) (f), (h); 4 (1) (c); 14; 62 and 67 of the Bill.

In its Judgement running into 12 pages (in the Hansard), in 11 pages the Court has examined various other points raised by Counsels concerned with rights of terrorists arrested such as Sections 2 dealing with jurisdiction under the Act; S. 4 (1) (a), (b) – imposing life imprisonment instead of death penalty for murder; S. 5 – imposing jail sentence of 15 years instead of death penalty for abetment of murder; S. 24 (1), 27 (1) – dealing with period of police custody and medical examination of suspects arrested; S. 36 (6), 39 dealing with Magistrate’s power to remand or release a suspect; S. 68 (5) – dealing with Magistrate’s power to remand a suspect declining to make a statement to the Magistrate, and S. 93 (3) defining the term ‘law’ to include international instruments which recognize human rights and to which Sri Lanka is a signatory.

Without much elaboration, regarding S. 62 (1) and 81 (1) of the Bill the Court has held that under Article 15 (7) of the Constitution the Parliament can enact legislation in the interest of national security, placing restrictions on the exercise of fundamental rights guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution and enacting such legislation cannot violate the fundamental rights.

It is sad to note that the Court’s attention has not been adequately drawn to the serious impact of Sections 3 (1) (a), (b), (c); 3 (2) (c), (d) (f), (h); 4 (1) (c); 14; 62 and 67 of the Bill on the fundamental rights of the people on various grounds which have nothing to do with national security or terrorism.

The Court has held that other than S. 4 (a) and (b), 68 (5) and 93 (3), the Bill can be passed with a simple majority.

S, 4 (a) and (b) of the Bill – the penalty for murder and abetment to commit murder is life imprisonment. In the Penal Code, penalty for murder is death penalty. This violates Article 12 (1).

S. 68 (5) – When a suspect declines to make a statement to the Magistrate, such fact shall be communicated by the Magistrate to the relevant Police Officer and the suspect shall be kept in remand custody. This violates Article 12 (1).

S. 99 (3) – For the purpose of this section the expression ‘law’ includes international instruments which recognize human rights and to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. This is inconsistent with Articles 3 and 4 of the Constitution. AG had suggested certain amendments to overcome these inconsistencies.

All News Advertisement

Features

The challenge of keeping value-based politics alive

Published

7 hours ago

2026/05/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Anti-migrant protests in Durban, South Africa. BBC

The current outbreak of anti-immigrant protests in Durban, South Africa is bound to have taken many a subscriber to value-based politics or political idealism quite by surprise. After all, this is evidence that despite the historic accomplishments of nation-builders of the stature of the late President Nelson Mandela it cannot be taken for granted that identity politics, including racism in its worst forms, is no more in South Africa.

At the time of this writing details are scarce on the substantive root causes of the protests but it could very well be that economic grievances, particularly on the part of the majority community in South Africa, are contributing considerably to the disaffection. Shrinking employment and material prospects are likely to figure majorly among the factors igniting the unrest.

Fortunately, the local authorities in Durban are losing no time in calling for peaceful co-existence among the relevant communities and are pointing to the vital importance of stepping-up national integration processes. Apparently, immigrants in sizable numbers from neighbouring countries are present in Durban. However, international TV footage of the protests quoted some local authorities as saying that the majority of the immigrants in some centres that housed them were not illegal migrants and had the documents that entitle them to be in Durban.

In the Durban protests the world has fresh proof of the socially divisive consequences of the gathering globe-wide economic disaffection, touched off particularly by the continuing crisis in West Asia. Going ahead, the world would need to brace for increasing identity-based unrest of the kind it is just witnessing in South Africa.

Considering that the material lot of ordinary people everywhere could only aggravate progressively, with the US and Iran showing no signs of negotiating an end to their confrontation any time soon, it will be left to the more democratic and progressive sections of the world community to initiate positive measures collectively to bring a measure of relief to the discontented.

The swiftness with which such relief will be provided would depend crucially on the importance those sections taking up these undertakings attach to value-based politics as opposed to Realpolitik of power politics.

Going by these yardsticks, Italy could be considered to be moving in the right direction. Recently Italy came to the fore in initiating the collective named, ‘Rome Coalition for Food Security and Access to Fertilizer’, which has as one of its aims the swift provision of fertilizer to economically weak African countries.

In a recent statement Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, said that a principal aim of the project was to ensure that the farmers of Africa gained easy access to fertilizer, considering that food security is a growing concern among some of Africa’s economically vulnerable countries.

The statement went on to mention that some 30 countries hailing from the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, the Balkans as well as the FAO had been invited to join the coalition. The venture is far-seeing in that food security is main among the reasons for social discontent which in turn could degenerate into endemic political turmoil and bloodshed. Separatist violence and geographical fragmentation of countries wouldn’t be too far behind these developments, as Africa itself has often proved.

It is hoped that more G7 countries would take the cue from Italy and do what they could to ease the hardships of economically distressed countries, particularly of the global South. In these efforts they would need to break rank with the US, which is today brutally indifferent to the consequences of its policy of making ‘America First’, come what may.

Going by current developments, the Trump administration seems to be blithely oblivious to the wider, deleterious effects of its policy course in West Asia. Besides rendering Iran militarily and otherwise impotent nothing else seems to matter to Washington, as regards West Asia. This is policy short-sightedness of an extreme kind. After all, right now West Asia could be said to be sitting on the proverbial powder keg.

On the other hand, Iran is not giving the world the impression that it is doing anything constructive to get out of the policy straitjacket that it wove for itself decades ago. Rather than enter into a policy of ‘live and let live’ in relation to Israel in particular and initiate a process of reconciliation with the latter, it has chosen to operate within policy parameters that continue to damn Israel. This has put Israel always on the ‘defensive’ so to speak and prevented the opening up of space for meaningful dialogue.

That said, Israel is obliged to explore the possibilities of entering into a negotiatory process with the Arab-Islamic world that could lead to a de-escalation of tensions and bloodshed. It cannot continue to look at its neighbours through lenses that distort them as archetypal enemies who should be ‘wiped off completely from the face of the earth.’

In other words, the need is urgent for Realpolitik to give way to value-based politicks. Italy is beginning to prove that the latter approach could be pursued with some success. May be the EU and the UK could throw their weight behind these initiatives as well and establish that international politics could be refashioned on the basis of humane, civilized norms. The UN would need to be fully supportive of these moves and prove an organizational nucleus of the operations that follow.

In fact the time is ripe for people of conscience to collectively stand up on the side of peace and say ‘No’ to war and violence. Organizations such as the ICRC, the WHO and Medicines Sans Frontiers have already taken up this call. Referring to the widespread destruction of health facilities and their dehumanizing results these organizations have said, among other things, that ‘This is not a failure of the law. It is a failure of political will.’

True, ‘failure of political will’ among those powers that matter accounts for the runaway, uncontrollable nature of war and destruction in contemporary times, but more fundamentally it is a failure of the human conscience. It could very well be that the phenomenal levels to which violence and war have been unleashed today have had the effect of deadening consciences. This is a matter for urgent study and wide discussion.

Features

Vesak celebrations … with Cuteefly

Published

7 hours ago

2026/05/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Perfect for celebrations, gifts, and meaningful occasions // Gift pack

I would describe Indunil Kaushalya Dissanayaka as innovative and creative, and she operates under the name of Cuteefly.

Indunil always comes up with something novel to celebrate special occasions, and she does it with candles … and that’s her profession.

She was in the spotlight when she created a happening scene, with candles, for Christmas, Sinhala and Tamil New Year, and Valentine’s Day.

As lanterns light up Sri Lanka for Vesak, the Colombo-based candle maker is quietly turning wax and wick into little pieces of the festival.

Candles reflecting Vesak themes

Her candles reflect Vesak themes – light, peace, remembrance, giving, etc., to enable you to fill your Vesak celebration with devotion and beauty.

Among her Vesak creations is a lotus-shaped soy candle, scented with sandalwood, lavender, etc., meant to burn during this Vesak Poya Day.

Indunil Kaushalya Dissanayaka: Customers
praise her for her creativity

These handcrafted Vesak candles are perfect for offering at the temple, she says.

What makes her creations so novel is that they come in different shapes, scents, themes, and all are handmade.

What’s more, her customers have heaped praise on her for her creativity.

According to Indunil, her creations are perfect as a thoughtful gift … to bring beauty, unity, and light into every moment.

Says Indunil: “Our beautifully handcrafted Unity candles are designed with premium detail and love, making them perfect for celebrations, gifts, and meaningful occasions.”

Cuteefly, says Indunil, is available online.

Readers could contact Indunil on 0778506066 for more details.

He Facebook Page is: Cuteefly.

Handmade with love

Features

Dark Spots …

Published

7 hours ago

2026/05/28

Sahan Weerasooriya

Yes, dark spots do crop up on the skin, especially with sun exposure and, of course, as the skin ages.

However, these tips should be of immense benefit to those who are faced with dark spots.

* Lemon and Honey Glow Mask:

You will need 01 teaspoon lemon juice and 01 teaspoon honey.

Mix the lemon juice and honey well and then apply this mixture, only on the dark spots.

Leave for 10–15 minutes and then rinse with cool water.

Benefits:

Lemon helps brighten pigmentation.

Honey moisturises and heals skin.

Gives a natural glow.

* Aloe Vera Gel Treatment:

All you need is fresh aloe vera gel.

Apply the gel apply on dark spots, before going to bed.

Leave overnight and wash in the morning.

Benefits:

Reduces acne marks and pigmentation.

Soothes irritated skin.

Helps skin repair naturally.

* Turmeric and Yoghurt Paste:

You will need 01 teaspoon yoghurt and a pinch of turmeric

Mix the yoghurt and turmeric into a smooth paste and apply on affected areas.

Leave for 15 minutes and then wash gently with lukewarm water.

Benefits:

Turmeric brightens skin naturally.

Yoghurt removes dead skin cells.

Helps fade dark spots gradually.

Use these packs 02-03 times a week as results are generally seen over time.

You can also try this out: Mix a ripe papaya into a smooth paste and apply to the face, or directly on to the dark spots. Leave for 15-20 minutes and then wash with lukewarm water.