(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – Attorney General (AG) Dappula de Livera today issued revised instructions and guidelines to prisons in Sri Lanka in light of the recent coronavirus outbreak in the country.
The AG’s coordinating Officer State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne said that the AG has issued instructions to Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) C.D. Wickramaratne in this regard.
The acting IGP has been issued directives to file charges and grant bail to suspects in remand in order to reduce overcrowding in prisons.
The Attorney General’s instructions come following a request from Minister of Justice Ali Sabry due to the spread of the coronavirus within remand prisons in Sri Lanka, Nishara Jayaratne added.
Six inmates and a prison official from the Welikada prison in Colombo were first reported to have contracted the coronavirus on Thursday (05), marking the second outbreak at the prison since the pandemic was reported in March 2020.
Twenty –three more inmates from the prison were reported to have tested positive the following day (06).
Thereafter, seven inmates at the old Bogambara prison were reported to have contracted the coronavirus on Saturday (07).
Over 100 inmates from various prisons are reported to have contracted the coronavirus as of today.
