President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has said the Government is prepared to reduce the period of detention for suspects under the proposed Organised Crime Prevention Bill from 72 hours to 48 hours.
The President made these remarks while addressing the religious leaders’ conference held under the ‘Ratama Ekata’ national operation.
He also said that the Government was prepared to remove the provision relating to tattoos from the Bill if it was deemed unnecessary in Sri Lanka. The identification of organised criminal groups through tattoos is a method used in certain other countries.
The President said that he and his colleagues had opposed the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for a long time and, having themselves been victims of its provisions, did not approve of using similar legislation to combat organised crime.
However, he stressed that legislation was necessary to prevent organised crime and that a new Bill had therefore been presented to Parliament.
He further said that the Government was prepared to hold discussions with human rights advocates on the criticisms and proposals concerning the Bill, emphasising that the Government had no intention of suppressing the public or violating their rights.
Elaborating on the Government's position, President Dissanayake said:
"For a long time, the Prevention of Terrorism Act was used to deal with organised criminals.
"Personally, we were among those who opposed the Prevention of Terrorism Act for many years and suffered under it. Therefore, we acknowledge that such legislation is not necessary.
"We need legislation to prevent organised crime, and we have now presented such legislation to Parliament. There are two groups opposing it who enjoy the protection of organised criminals' privileges. We will not engage with those groups.
"There is another group in our country that speaks out on human rights. We are prepared to engage in discussions with them as well.
"There is absolutely no intention of suppressing the public or violating their rights through this legislation. What we need is a law to combat organised crime. Our responsibility is to formulate that law.
"The Bill is currently before the Supreme Court, where it is being considered. Those who have challenged the Bill before the court have raised three main issues.
"One concerns the detention period. Under this Bill, the detention period is 72 hours. There have been proposals that this is excessive. We are prepared to amend it to 48 hours. We are willing to listen.
"Another issue concerns tattoos. This is a method of identifying organised criminal groups. However, if this is not relevant to our country, we do not need that provision. We are prepared to remove it as well.
"Another controversial provision in the Bill concerns the possibility of offences under the Excise Ordinance being dealt with under the Organised Crime Prevention Act. We will remove that provision too, making it clear that offences under the Excise Ordinance will not be dealt with under the Organised Crime Prevention Act."
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