Over 200 inmates in Welikada and Bogambara Prisons on hunger strike

2017-09-16

At least 150 remand prisoners, sentenced to death and serving life imprisonment in the Welikada Prison, launched a hunger strike yesterday, Prisons Spokesperson Thushara Upuldeniya said.

This follows close on the heels of a hunger strike launched by around 50 inmates of the Bogambara Prison on Thursday (14).

Upuldeniya said the Welikada remand prisoners, who had refused to eat since yesterday morning, were demanding to be paroled via a common pardon.

Upuldeniya said their demand would not be fulfilled immediately as they needed to wait for the recommendations of a committee headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Nimal Dissanayaka, appointed by the Justice Ministry in 2013, to decide on the fate of prisoners on death row.

Currently, Welikada Prison houses more than 200 prisoners on death raw and more than 150 serving life sentences.

Upuldeniya hinted that the hunger strike might be an attempt by some outside organization to sabotage the peaceful environment that exists in the prison system.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Attorney at Law Senaka Perera, representing the Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners said that more than 50 prisoners at the Bogambara prison were still refusing to eat.

“Prisoners in all the prisons, including the one in Bogambara, are living hellish lives, as all prisons lack even basic facilities. The authorities should open their eyes and take appropriate measures to solve these long-standing issues,” he said. (Piyumi Fonseka and J.A.L. Jayasinghe)