Sri Lanka’s government is drafting legislation to allow suspects to be placed under house arrest instead of being remanded in custody as part of efforts to address severe prison overcrowding, the justice minister said Thursday.
Justice and National Integration Minister Harshana Nanayakkara said the country’s prisons, built to hold about 10,500 inmates, are currently housing nearly 39,000.
He said the main issue was the large number of remand prisoners who have not been convicted. According to the minister, about 28,000 inmates are in remand custody, including roughly 20,000 detained on drug-related offenses.
Nanayakkara said the proposed law, being prepared under the guidance of Justice Yasantha Kodagoda, would allow courts to impose home detention in appropriate cases instead of remanding suspects in prison, thereby reducing congestion.
He also said there is currently no structured mechanism to review or reduce sentences for prisoners serving life terms or facing the death penalty. A committee chaired by Justice Thurairaja has been appointed to examine the possibility of introducing a sentence reduction framework for long-term inmates.
The minister said Sri Lanka’s courts are burdened with about 1.1 million pending cases. He noted that the rate of case disposal has increased under the current chief justice and that new courts are being established, including special courts for Easter Sunday attacks and bribery cases. Seven additional courts are expected to be set up.
Responding to a question about the recent shooting of a lawyer and his wife in Akuregoda, Nanayakkara said the legal community as a whole was not under threat due to court appearances and that justice must be served in the case.
He also said the government would amend proposed rent legislation after receiving public feedback and would not pass the bill in its current form. (Newswire)
