| News |
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| Gruesome
killings drive Govt. to go for death penalty The reimplementation of death penalty was top on the agenda at a meeting between the minister and senior police officers on Friday morning. "We are hoping to discuss the issue with civic rights groups, religious leaders and academics," Mr. Amaratunga said identifying the easy access to illegal arms, poverty and drug addictions as major reasons for the increase in the crime rate. The Government is also to expedite the introduction of a new bill -- the Organised Crimes Bill -- that seeks to bring in tough punishments, such as the death penalty, as a means of tackling organised crime. The minister said the increasing crime rate showed that the social values had been deteriorating. He vowed that all attempts, including the reimplementation of the death penalty, would be made to bring down the crime rate. "Earlier when we tried to introduce the death penalty there was lot of opposition, but now with the crime rate on the increase, we will make all attempts to reintroduce it," he said. Among those recent killings that shocked the nation were the triple killing in Naula -- grandmother and two girls aged 13 and 9; the Nittambuwa killings of a young mother and a four-year-old child by a robber gang and Wednesday night's triple murder at Dehiwela Frazer Street. The victims in the Dehiwela case were 79-year-old man Frank Hamer and his son and daughter. In the Dehiwela
triple murder case, police are yet to make a major breakthrough.
A senior police officer said they had got a lead and they were hunting
for a threewheeler driver who had inquired about the whereabouts
of the fiance of one of the victims. The postmortem on Mr. Hamer revealed he had been stabbed six times and hit hard on the nose with a heavy weapon causing suffocation. The postmortem showed his son, Dieter Hamer, a bank executive, had been stabbed four times in the neck and in the stomach. The girl, Daisy Anne (29) had five stab injuries . The statement
of Jerome Russel Crome (33) the boy friend of Daisy Anne Hamer,
was recorded before the Mt. Lavinia Courts Chief Magistrate Aruna
Ranasinghe. Therefore, he telephoned the Mt Lavinia Hotel where she worked. He was told that she would be coming to office at 11.30 a.m. Since Mr. Crome needed to travel to Colombo for business purposes that day he took a three-wheeler. Deciding to meet his girlfriend and then proceed to do his work, he got out off the three-wheeler near the Dehiwela house, and seeing the frightened domestic-aide near the entrance and learning that something unusual had happened, he entered the house and went upto his girl friend whose body was covered as usual. He pulled off the bed clothes to give his girlfriend a kiss as usual. But he said that to his horrow, he saw her tied hands and her head fallen to a side. He said then he ran out of the room in shock. Thinking that the girl's father had gone for his morning exercises, a daily habit, Mr. Crome said he contacted the Sampath Bank to speak to the girl's brother. He was told the brother had not come to work. He then informed the Dehiwela Police of the incident. The Dehiwela Police upon arrival at the scene discovered the bodies of the father and son under the bed. House
committees study law reforms Leader of the House and Justice Minister W.J.M. Lokubandara moved the two motions on Thursday. The first motion on the administration of justice resolves that a select committee of parliament be appointed to inquire into and report with recommendations for the reorganization of the working of the judicial system, with particular reference to the functioning of courts, judges, court staff, attorneys, police and prisons. The motion states that the reason for the appointment of the committee is the serious concern regarding the erosion of public confidence in the judiciary and related institutions involved in the administration of justice. The other select
committee will inquire into and report on the law relating to contempt
of court and make recommendations regarding the codification of
the existing law. Prisoners’
families reject Gayoom’s claims In response to their pleas, Migrant Workers' Welfare Minister Laksman Yapa Abeywardena said the government was seeking help from the ICRC to visit the prisoners and check on what was happening. He said an official of the Foreign Employment Bureau was also being sent to the Maldives tomorrow to obtain full details of each prisoner. The relatives of these prisoners held demonstrations in Colombo when President Gayoom arrived here on a four day visit and at a news conference insisted that 23 Lankan prisoners had been convicted of charges and jailed while 22 more were still in remand, pending trial. He said 14 of the 18 Lankans jailed for illegal fishing would be repatriated soon. The Maldivian leader claimed all the Lankan prisoners were given a just and fair trial and there was no torture. said he regretted the imprisonment of Sri lankans but said there was no option as Maldivian law was tough especially on drug trafficking and killings though there was no death penalty. But familiesof
the prisoners are not impressed with what the Maldivian leader said. Niranjala who is struggling with her two children with no source of income claimed that her husband was jailed for drug trafficking because he had protested against poor salaries paid by the company he worked for. The sister
of Gnanaratne who has been jailed on charges of drug trafficking
said he had been forced to sign a charge sheet. Mangala Ranasinghe,
a spokesman for the Association of Sri Lankan Prisoners in Maldives
said that since police were given promotions for nabbing drug offenders
there were many frame-ups to get promotions. |
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