The United Nations Human Rights Committee says Sri Lanka must provide “full reparations” to Canadian Roy Samathanam for his imprisonment and torture from 2007 to 2010.
Samathanam was a Tamil refugee resettled in Canada. He later visited Sri Lanka during the country’s civil war to marry. Police raided his home and seized hundreds of cell phones he had imported for a friend’s business. He refused to pay a bribe to a police and was taken away under controversial anti-terrorism measures.
‘A measure of justice’
He was forced to sign a false confession and watch the torture of others. He eventually paid a fine and was released.
After his return to Canada, he worked with the Canadian Centre for International Centre Justice (CCICJ) to filed a complaint with the UN committee. That committee has given the Sri Lankan government 180 days to report back to the committee on measures taken to comply with its decision.
Torture ‘on a widespread scale’
“Although I can never get back the three years of my life that I lost, I finally have a measure of justice,” said Roy Samathanam in a CCICJ news release. “I took this action not only for accountability in my case but for so many others who cannot speak out due to the danger they still face.”
In a 2015 report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights found that Sri Lankan authorities committed torture “on a widespread scale.”
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