The parents of a Mahara Prison inmate who recently died under suspicious circumstances lodged a complaint this week with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).
Sumanadasa Tissera, the father of Kavinda Isuru Tissera, 27, who died on 3 May while detained at the Mahara Prison due to, what the Prison authorities claimed, were injuries sustained from a fall from the Prison wall, after the inmate, along with several others, had attempted to allegedly escape, lodged a complaint with the HRCSL, citing torture and the suspicious nature of his son’s death.
The complaint was lodged on 1 June and he was accompanied by his wife and son’s mother R.M. Karunawathie and Secretary of the Committee for Protecting the Rights of Prisoners, Sudesh Nandimal Silva.
The family suspects killing/murder, Silva, speaking to Ceylon Today, said.
Chairman of the Committee, Attorney-at-Law Senaka Perera, also speaking to Ceylon Today, added that the parents of the deceased further claim that their son had been without food and left to starve since 28 April until his demise on 3 May.
“The official version of events is that Isuru Tissera attempted to escape along with fellow prisoners detained at the Mahara Prison, but as to how someone who has been without food for days, in such a weakened state as one may imagine, manages to scale the 20 foot high Prison wall beggars belief,” Perera queried.
According to another Media report, which cited Sumanadasa Tissera and Karunawathie, Isuru Tissera had been severely beaten and his limbs had been broken (legs and hands fractured), while there was also a wound on the back of the head which had bled profusely. The parents, according to this news report, had gone to view their child’s body after the incident.
Sulari Liyanagama, attached to the Inquiries and Investigations Division of the HRCSL, was unavailable for comment.
