Former Member of Parliament Duminda Silva’s death sentence has once again been confirmed by the Supreme Court. Accordingly, Duminda Silva achieved the rare opportunity of being the first person whose death sentence was upheld twice by the Supreme Court.
Duminda Silva holds several records in this nation.
First records is that he went to Singapore without being arrested, spent a long time there, returned to the island, nominally arrested, spent a long time in the Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital and was finally the first defendant who had the good fortune to be admitted to the prison hospital.
The second is the record of being a regular resident prisoner of the prison hospital who was fortunate enough to come to court in a critical condition while the death penalty appeal was being heard in the Supreme Court.
The third record is the record of being the first prison inmate to get out of the prison hospital bed as a healthy man with the presidential pardon of the President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
The fourth record is to be the first person to be appointed as the chairman of a major government institution within a few days after being pardoned from the death penalty.
The fifth record is the first patient to be admitted to Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital after the Supreme Court granted an interim injunction.
The sixth record is the record of being the first patient who received treatment from the specialists and doctors of that hospital for two years and eight months but was unable to achieve a significant recovery.
It is certain that this set of records that has set up are indicators that show how the governance of our country is functioning. This performance centered on Duminda Silva is an excellent example that can be used to explain the functioning of the government in our country.
The prison is managed by a government department. That state department is managed and supervised by the country’s Ministry of Justice. There is a minister in charge of the Ministry of Justice. That minister becomes a member of the cabinet in charge of the governance of the country. On the other hand, Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital is governed by a Board of Governors established by an Act of Parliament. The Ministry of Health is responsible for supervising and directing the activities of that hospital. The Minister in charge of the Ministry of Health is also a member of the cabinet. The head of the cabinet is the president who is also the head of state. Under the leadership of the President, the cabinet meets once a week and takes important decisions about the governance of the country. This group including the President, Cabinet, Ministers, Secretaries, Heads of Departments and Governing Boards is called the executive of the state. The executive should function only according to the constitutions i.e. rules enacted by the legislature.
That is why the entire executive, including the President, is accountable to the Parliament or the Legislature. Accordingly, one of the main responsibilities assigned to the legislature is to follow up on whether the executive is functioning properly and take the necessary steps for that. There is an auditor appointed by the constitution for that purpose. His job is to follow up and report to the legislature whether the executive has acted correctly by spending the money allocated by the legislature for those allocated tasks. The Legislature has established two committees with the short names COPE and COPA to discuss those reports and report to the entire Parliament. They are also shown in the media, how the COPE and COPA gather and interrogate the heads of the executive who wear white collars and ties.
All the people of the country have to act according to the laws and regulations imposed by the legislature. An agency called the police has been set up in the executive branch to deal with citizens who do not comply with the laws. In addition to that, other departmental bodies such as boards and authorities can also act on the activities that are contrary to the law related to that body. Thus, the state structure has a part called the judiciary to hold a hearing and decide whether the actions are alleged to be against the law and to impose punishment on those who have violated the law. Although the jurisdiction belongs to the legislature, in its implementation, the rest of the power, except the jurisdiction related to the privileges of the legislature, must be exercised by this judicial structure.
Let us recall the case of Duminda Silva
The incident of Duminda Silva happened in 2011. In the midst of a local government election, Duminda Silva went with a group of his associates and three people were killed, including Bharata Lakshman Premachandra, the director general of the trade union of the then president Mahinda Rajapaksa in Kolonnawa area. Duminda Silva, who is said to have been shot in this incident, was admitted to Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital. As soon as he was admitted, it was reported that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who held the position of Defense Secretary at the time, also came to the hospital to see him. As this was a very serious crime, Duminda Silva was taken to Singapore for further treatment at the expense of his family while police investigations were being carried out. When he was is in Singapore, the High Court indicted him. Duminda Silva, who came to Sri Lanka, was admitted to the hospital under the supervision of the prison.
After the trial, Duminda Silva was sentenced to death by the High Court on charges of murder, and subsequently he was transferred to the prison hospital. After that, he filed an appeal to the Supreme Court and came to the court during the hearing of the appeal in the manner of carrying a sick person in ambulance. When I saw Duminda Silva’s ailing body on television in those days, I asked about him from one of my friends who often goes to the prison for counselling. He said to me, “He is not sick, son. He is acting as a sick and he has not yet understood that God cannot be lied to, even if he lies to someone” Even after the death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court, he continued to be in the prison hospital. After that he was cured by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidential pardon announcement. Immediately after the pardon, Duminda Silva, who was released from prison, took over as the chairman of the National Housing Development Authority. While working there, he did not have any sickness. Once again he becomes critically ill with the Supreme Court issuing an interim order suspending the presidential pardon granted to him. From that day till today he is in “critical” Jayawardenepura Hospital. Prison official say that he is being treated in the hospital under prison supervision. It is clear that the prison officials have also been assigned to the hospital for this strange patient.
Avoiding the law by making a doctor’s prescription..
How is the government mechanism functioning in relation to this issue? let’s see. Is it possible to send a suspect of a serious crime out of the country and receive treatment abroad? Even if Nandun Chinthaka alias Harak Kata, who is still in the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department on detention orders as a suspect, can he go to Singapore for treatment at his family’s expense if he develops a serious illness? Will the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) allow it?
When the murderer who killed a woman at the Kahathuduwa expressway exit gate the other day was arrested in Katunayake, would he have been allowed to go to a foreign hospital for medical treatment? If this is not allowed to go, Duminda Silva will have to accept that he went abroad without this law affecting him because of the weak behavior of the government and the selection in the rule of law. If there are any signs of going to jail for any crime, what many politicians do is to enter a private hospital and become a critical patient. Since then, the magistrate and the police have been visiting the patient and it has been a custom for them to go home after holding peace talks with the government officials, managing the situation, and in the worse case giving a verbal statement lying sick in the hospital bed. Duminda Silva played this game for many years.
If Duminda wishes to go to Mount Elizabeth, will the government send him with two jailers?
That means breaking the law by making a medical recommendation. The polity of the state of Sri Lanka has been dismantled by this dirty of Duminda Silva. If asked how a prisoner sentenced to death by the prison department is staying at the Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital at his own expense, he will say that it is because the doctors say so.
Is that right? Are you responsible for the purity of the institution? If asked, they can also say, “They are under the supervision of our officers in the hospital.” If the doctors who couldn’t even get Duminda Silva out of bed for more than two and a half years recommend to send Duminda to Mount Elizabeth, what will the government do ? Will they wear a jumper to Duminda and send him to Singapore with two jailers.
Then the Commissioner General can go there at least once in three months to look after the sick prison inmate and supervise his officers. If requested to allow other inmates who have been sentenced to death in the jail to receive inpatient treatment at the hospitals that charge fees at the family’s expense? These questions should be asked from the prison department. If yes, they should be asked from the Ministry Secretary. Parliament should ask the minister that question. Then at least if there is any shame, you have to give an answer. However, the monitoring process of the state is not in place here.
The doctors who say that the governing body of Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital is treating him should be questioned as to why this prison inmate is being kept here if he is not cured after more than two and a half years of treatment.
If the health minister has good mental health, he should ask the hospital about this. But it is all inoperative.
The Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty twice, but the executive still cannot send the convict to prison
People’s representatives who stir up a lot of pus in Parliament do not question this. These issues should also be raised in the COPE and COPA Committees of the Legislature, but all those institutions are silent.
This is how the legislature and the executive function in our country. The Supreme Court of the country has confirmed the death penalty twice and still cannot send a convict to the prison. Finally, the executive has started a new system that will bring the prison to the feet of the convict.
This executive also owns the state hospitals where the prison inmates who are unable to get up after two and a half years of treatment in the prison hospital are taken to a suitable place for the desire of the inmate and kept in the state hospital by charging money from him.
Azgar nuhman – Independent journalist and Sufi author
