Rizana Nafeek: Medieval Murder in Modern Times

By Daily Mail Reporter
26 June 2011 
A young maid is facing death by beheading in Saudi Arabia for a crime she claims she did not commit.
Rizana Nafeek, who alleges she was a teenager at the time of the incident, was arrested in May 2005 on charges of murdering a four-month-old baby who was in her care.
The Sri-Lankan born maid denies murder and claims she desperately tried to save the child, who choked while she was looking after it.
The news comes just days after Indonesia announced it would ban women from travelling to the kingdom for domestic work after another maid was beheaded there

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2008273/Medieval-murder-modern-times-Sri-Lankan-born-Rizana-Nafeek-faces-death-beheading-Saudi-Arabia.html#ixzz1Qa4tXjgk

 

Over 250 detainees escaped from Sri Lanka prisons in 2010

June 23, Colombo:
The Prisons Department of Sri Lanka says that last year over 250 detainees had escaped from the country's prisons.
The Prisons Department's Performance Report for 2010 that has been presented to Parliament states that 251 detainees had escaped from prisons around the country with the highest escapes of 43 being recorded from the Welikada Prison in Colombo.
The other inmates who have escaped are 14 inmates from Bogambara, 21 from Mahara, 13 from Watarekka and 26 from Pallekele.
The report has also stated that persons in remand prison have also escaped.
Meanwhile, 15,839 prisoners had been granted amnesties in 2010 and 12,861 prisoners have been released under the prisons' general amnesty.
Sri Lanka's Prison Reforms and Rehabilitation Ministry has meanwhile, initiated prison reforms aimed at easing the congestion in prisons island wide.
Source: Colombo Page 

Sri Lanka: Death Row Prisoners Go On Hunger Strike

By Charles Haviland BBC News, Colombo

Hundreds of prisoners on death row or serving life in jail in Sri Lanka are staging a hunger strike.

They are trying to try to persuade the government to set them free or commute their sentences.
Around 600 prisoners at Columbo's Welikada jail refused food on Monday, and there are reports of similar protests in two other prisons.
Despite the large number of prisoners on death row, Sri Lanka has not carried out capital punishment since 1977.
However, in the late 1990s it suspended a process whereby sentences used to be regularly commuted, so many inmates have no idea what the future holds.
The head of the prisons service, Maj-Gen V.R. de Silva, told the BBC that more than 600 of the 4,000 prisoners at the high-security Welikada prison had refused food on Monday morning.
Twenty were demonstrating on the prison roof. There are reports of similar protests, also involving large numbers, in two jails outside Colombo.
The number involved has grown since last Thursday, when more than 100 prisoners started a demonstration demanding that the authorities rescind their death sentences.
Maj-Gen de Silva said the protesting prisoners are convicted of crimes including murder, rape and drug-trafficking.
They are said to be unhappy that they were not included in a general amnesty implemented for more than 800 more minor offenders a week ago.
The wheels of justice move notoriously slowly in Sri Lanka and the jails are said to be severely overcrowded, with poor conditions.
Source: bbc news 23 May 2011

Three Sri Lanka Army men sentence to death

By Farook Thajudeen
The Colombo High Court yesterday imposed the death sentence on three soldiers who were found guilty of the abduction, rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman in Jaffna in 1996. The three soldiers, Gamini Saman Uyanage, A. P. Sarathchandra and D. Gamage Kithsiri were indicted for the abduction and murder of Valaudan Pillai Rajini in Kondavil on or around October 30, 1996. Gamini Saman Uyanage and D. Gamage Kithsiri were also indicted for the rape of the 22-year-old woman.
High Court judge P. W. D. C. Jayatilake imposed the death sentence on the three accused when the seven-member jury found them guilty of the murder. 
State Counsel Lakmini Girihagama appeared for the prosecution. 
Source: Daily  Mirror 31 March  2011