Justice and National Integration Minister Harshana Nanayakkara said the law must apply equally to everyone — “including those in power, politics, public officials, and ordinary citizens” — and that treating people differently according to whether they hold power is not the rule of law, NewsFirst reported.
The minister, an attorney-at-law, was speaking at the passing-out ceremony of the 13th Apprentice Second-Class Jailers’ Course and the 105th Apprentice Prison Officers’ Training Course, held at the Prison Training Institute grounds in Agunukolapelessa.
The second half of the remarks is the substantive one
Nanayakkara said crime in a society cannot be resolved through punishment alone, while also stressing that the law must be enforced when a crime is committed.
He said the country’s prison policy is aimed at going beyond punishment to rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
Delivered to a parade of newly qualified jailers and prison officers, that is a statement of operating doctrine to the people who will carry it out, rather than a general political sentiment.
The context the report does not supply
The remarks were made at Agunukolapelessa, and NewsFirst does not mention what that location carries.
Sri Lanka’s prison system has been under sustained scrutiny through 2026. The Negombo prison riot left 28 dead, with compensation of Rs. 2 million per death; the Human Rights Commission has pressed for violence-prevention measures; a joint mechanism on inmate safety was established in August; and Jaffna prison received an emergency response mechanism the same month.
Nanayakkara himself has been a central figure in that scrutiny. He is also the minister who has said the Prevention of Terrorism Act would be repealed this year.
A statement that the law must apply equally regardless of power, made to prison officers, sits against that record. Whether the minister intended it as a reference to prisoner treatment, to the prosecution of politically connected defendants, or as general encouragement to a graduating class, the report does not say — and the distinction matters, because each reading points at a different open controversy.
Not reported
NewsFirst gives no direct quotation beyond the paraphrased remarks, does not say how many officers passed out in the two courses, and does not report who else attended or spoke.
It does not say whether the minister addressed any specific case, the Negombo deaths, prison overcrowding, or the timetable for the rehabilitation policy he described. No detail is given of what the prison policy consists of, whether it is written, funded, or has a target date.
The report also does not say what training the two courses comprise or how long they run.
This appears to be a NewsFirst exclusive. Checks of the Daily Mirror and Hiru News listings and the government news service found no other verified newsroom carrying the event at the time of writing.
