CAT/C/31/D/186/2001
Page 3
The facts as submitted
2.1
The complainant is from Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka. When his parents’ house
was bombed by the Sri Lankan army in October 1995, he and his family fled to the then
LTTE1-controlled city of Killinochi, from where he left for Colombo in May 1996, together
with his mother. On their way to Colombo, he was separated from his mother and arrested,
at a checkpoint of the Sri Lankan army and the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation
Front (EPRLF) near Vavuniya, together with several other Tamil men suspected of LTTEmembership.
2.2
The complainant was subsequently detained in a room of a school from where he
was brought to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Thandikulam for
interrogations about his LTTE connection. During that time, he was allegedly tortured by
Tamil members of the EPRLF who burned his genitals with cigarettes, while he was naked
with his hands tied behind his back. The complainant also received blows with a rod and
was threatened with execution if he refused to admit his LTTE-membership. During
detention, he was only given sandy rice to eat and smelly water, or urine, to drink. After 12
days, the complainant was released because of repeated interventions of his mother and
because a remote relative from Colombo, Mr. J. S., had provided guarantees for him.
2.3
Shortly after his arrival in Colombo, where he stayed in a [Tamil] lodge, the
complainant was arrested and handed over by the army to the police. The following day, he
was brought before a judge who, by decision of 2 August 1996, acquitted him of all charges
of terrorist activity, for lack of evidence. Despite his acquittal, he was kept in detention at
the CID, in a cell occupied by Singhalese drug addicts and alcoholics who allegedly beat
him. After one week, he was brought before court again, where he managed to secure his
release with the assistance of a lawyer.
2.4
Shortly thereafter, the complainant was again arrested by the CID on grounds of
being a suspected LTTE activist. At the CID office in Boralle, he allegedly was given half
an hour to confess his LTTE-membership, failing which the CID officer threatened to
execute him. During his subsequent interrogation with two other suspects, Mr. J. S. and his
sister, K. S., the complainant received blows on his head with a sand-filled plastic pipe
(“S’Lon Pipe”). He was then detained at the CID building for seven days until he was
released, together with the two other suspects, after they had paid 15.000 Rupees as bribe.
2.5
In September 1996, the complainant was again arrested by the CID, after a bomb
attack on a train in Dehiwala, Colombo, and after weapons and explosives had been found
next to the house of his relatives and co-suspects, J. S. and K. S.. During detention, where
he was allegedly beaten, forced to exhibit his genitals and given poor food, the complainant
was twice visited by delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross (9 and 19
September 1996). When the police arrested the real perpetrator of the bomb blast, he was
released after 22 days’ detention, together with Mr. and Ms. Selvarasa, after his mother had
paid a bribe of 45.000 Rupees. He was told to leave Colombo within one month.
2.6
On 29 October 1996, the complainant left Sri Lanka using a false passport. He
arrived in Switzerland on 30 October 1996, where he applied for asylum the same day.
1
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam.