The Criminal Investigation Department has named 25 more suspects over the July clash at Negombo Prison, all of them female inmates of the Negombo Women’s Prison, bringing the total number of suspects in the case to 106, Hiru News reported.
CID officers told Negombo Chief Magistrate Shilani Perera on Thursday that the 106 comprise 81 men and 25 women. The women are to be prosecuted under the Offences Against Public Property Act over damage caused during the clash, and the CID asked that they be remanded until the trial concludes.
Chief Magistrate Perera granted the CID’s requests and ordered all 106 suspects remanded until 17 September.
An identification parade went ahead
Twenty-three suspects, numbered 07 to 30, were produced for an identification parade during Thursday’s proceedings. Prison officers appearing as witnesses identified them before the Chief Magistrate, Hiru reported.
The CID asked the court to direct prison authorities to produce the female suspects, alongside suspects numbered 30 to 60, for a further identification parade — and requested that the women appear in covered attire. Notices were also sought for 20 prison officers serving as witnesses in the case.
The Magistrate additionally directed that suspects not required for the identification parade be produced before the court virtually, by WhatsApp.
The parade has been slow to convene. When the suspect list stood at 62 in August, the Magistrate postponed the parade to 21 August because several officers due to give evidence were still in hospital with injuries from the clash.
Who is investigating
A further report was submitted by a CID team led by Assistant Superintendent of Police Chandana Kaluarachchi of Commercial Crimes Investigation Division 01, with Chief Inspector Karunathilaka, Sub-Inspectors Dulitha Maduranga and Madusanka, and Police Constables Dulanga, Jayasuriya, Bandara, Anil, Asela and Herath.
Hiru does not explain why a Commercial Crimes Investigation Division officer heads the team in a case arising from a prison clash.
The CID is investigating under the Offences Against Public Property Act, the Firearms Ordinance and murder charges. The 25 women have been named only in connection with property damage.
The death toll does not match earlier accounts
Hiru’s report states that the clash on 5 and 6 July killed 20 prison officers and 22 inmates. That officer figure is not supported by any other account of the case.
The toll has been revised repeatedly, but always upward from eight officers to ten. Authorities initially reported 28 dead — eight prison officers and 20 inmates. Two more officers died of their injuries at the National Hospital in mid-July. Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara told Parliament in August that the toll stood at 22 inmates and 10 prison officers, with 106 inmates and 21 officers injured — 32 deaths in all — and the same 10-and-22 breakdown was used when compensation was handed to the families of the officers killed. Hiru itself once put the officers killed at 11.
Nothing has been reported since that would take the officer toll from 10 to 20, and no outlet has reported further deaths. Until another account confirms it, Hiru’s figure should be treated as unverified; the inmate figure of 22 is consistent throughout.
Note also that 106 is the number of inmates injured in the Justice Minister’s August account, as well as the new suspect total. The two figures are unrelated.
Not reported
No other newsroom had filed on Thursday’s proceedings at the time of writing. Hiru does not say how many of the 106 are in custody as opposed to already serving sentences, whether any suspect is represented by counsel, what damage the property charges concern or its value, or when the trial is expected to begin. It does not explain how inmates of the Negombo Women’s Prison came to be implicated in a clash at the men’s prison, or whether any of the 106 faces the murder charges the CID says it is pursuing. Nor does it say why the women are to be produced in covered attire for the identification parade.
