Officials say 9 prisoners killed at Mahara had COVID-19

Glocal
By Editor_1
A relatives of an inmate weeps at Ragama hospital on the outskirts of Colombo Monday (Nov 30) a day after a prison riot over the surge of coronavirus infections. Sri Lankan prison guards shot dead 11 inmates and wounded at least 117 others in a riot sparked by anger over rising coronavirus infections, officials said -LAKRUWAN WANNIARACHCHI / AFP
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COLOMBO – Post-mortem PCR tests carried out on the 11 inmates killed in the Mahara prison riots had determined nine of them to be COVID-19 positive. The Director of Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama said the PCR tests were carried out on Tuesday (Dec 1). Thirty eight of the 117 inmates injured in Sunday’s (Nov 29) riots had also tested positive for the novel corona virus. Guards opened fire at the high-security Mahara prison outside Colombo on Sunday (Nov 29) night after prisoners went on the rampage demanding to be freed because of soaring coronavirus cases in jails.

Sri Lankan prisons have seen weeks of unrest as the number of COVID-19 cases in jails exceeded 1,000 by Saturday (28). Two inmates have died of the disease.

Last week, a prisoner was killed when he fell while trying to scale the walls of a jail in the central Bogambara region during unrest.

Prisons across the country went into a lockdown last week as the number of cases among inmates and guards increased.

Meanwhile, Commissioner General of Prison Thushara Upuldeniya said the Prison Department would be taking legal action against 25 identified prison inmates involved in the Mahara prison riots. He said authorities were also in the process of identifying other inmates responsible.

Upuldeniya also said security at the prison complex had been fortified by Tuesday and 2500 inmates were currently detained at the Mahara Prison.

On Tuesday, Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the government took full responsibility for the violence at the Mahara prison, but qualified by saying the inmates could’ve been under the influence of some unnamed psychotropic pills.  He claimed various measures taken by intelligence operatives and prison officials to prevent drugs from getting inside the prison appear to have been circumvented.

As testimony to the media minister’s claims,  Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana told reporters on Tuesday some 21,000 pills had been stored at the Mahara prison’s infirmary, and the police would be investigate why such a large number of pills were ordered. Rohana claimed the pill in  question were used by heroin addicts as an alternative drug.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International called on the government to conduct an impartial investigation into the prison unrest and the use of live ammunition by guards that resulted in the deaths and injuries. It also urged the government to examine the underlying causes of the unrest at Mahara prison, which began Sunday evening and continued well into Monday (Nov 30).

“Yesterday’s incident reflects the anxiety among prisoners about the threat of COVID-19 within severely overcrowded prisons and the inadequate measures in place to protect them,” David Griffiths, director of the Office of the Secretary General at Amnesty International said on Tuesday.

“There is already a swelling number of inmates across the country who have tested positive for COVID-19,” he said in a statement.

The London based rights body also asked authorities to consider alternatives to custody, such as parole or early release, especially of detainees who do not pose a significant threat to the public, in order to ease the congestion. It also asked that prisoners be provided the same standard of healthcare that is available in the community, including prevention, testing and treatment for COVID-19.

-ENCL

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