Young man sentenced to life imprisonment for bid to smuggle heroin into remand prison

A. J.A. Abeynayake

A 25-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday (10th) by Colombo High Court Judge Manjula Thilakaratne after being found guilty of attempting to smuggle over 25 grams of heroin into the Colombo Remand Prison. The narcotic had been concealed in a false bottom of a food container he had brought for a friend detained at the prison.

The Attorney General filed charges against the accused for possession and trafficking of 25.094 grams of heroin. The court determined that both charges were proven beyond reasonable doubt, leading the judge to impose life sentences for each offence.

The incident was uncovered when an intelligence officer, attached to the Welikada Remand Prison, became suspicious of a container containing cooked meat and rice. Upon inspection, he discovered a false bottom concealing the heroin, along with a mobile phone and accessories.

The accused claimed in court that he had visited his friend’s house after receiving a phone call from him. Subsequently, a person who arrived in a three-wheeler handed him the food container on 4th December 2019, asking him to deliver it to his friend. He insisted that he was unaware of the heroin and other prohibited items concealed inside.

However, the court rejected this statement, with Judge Thilakaratne ruling it to be a false account intended to evade responsibility. The judge noted that the accused failed to provide any information about the individual who handed him the container or the vehicle involved.

Senior State Counsel Akalanka Balapatabendi, representing the prosecution, urged the court to impose the maximum penalty, citing the significant harm caused by the spread of drug trafficking across the country. Considering the gravity of the offence and its impact on society, the judge dismissed the defence’s arguments as implausible and handed down the sentence.

The life sentence was formally read to the accused, Devaraja Lawrence, by High Court translator Malshi Nimgama Fernando.