Final report on Mahara Prison riot hands over to Justice Minister

The committee appointed to investigate the Mahara Prison riot handed over its final report to Justice Minister Ali Sabry, a short while ago.

The chair of the committee, retired High Court judge Sarojini Kusala Weerawardena, handed over the report to the minister at the ministry premises today in the presence of other committee members.

Chief Legal advisor to the Ministry of Justice U. R. De Silva, Additional Secretary of the Justice Ministry Rohana Hapugaswatte, retired Senior DIG D.R.L. Ranaweera and former Prisons Commissioner Gamini Jayasinghe were the other members of the committee.

The committee appointed on November 30 was tasked with preparing a report on the facts underlying the incident, the parties responsible, actions to be taken and recommendations to be taken to prevent such incidents.

The committee members had visited the prison premises on several occasions over the past few weeks to record evidence.

Its interim report was handed over to the Justice Minister on December 07.

A total of 11 inmates had died while 106 others and 02 prison officials sustained injuries in the Mahara Prison riot on November 29.

A tense situation was reported  at the prison when a group of inmates allegedly attempted to escape the facility following a conflict with prison officials.

Prison authorities had opened fire to control the situation and a team of Police Special Task Force (STF) personnel was deployed to assist prison authorities.

Subsequently, a massive fire had broken out at the prison after several inmates set fire to the health office, a storage area, and several other places within the prison.

The fire had raged on until 3.00 am on November 30 and was completely extinguished with help of 06 fire trucks.

Two prison officials were also held hostage by protesting inmates; however, they were later rescued by the authorities.

Authorities later revealed that the rioting inmates had also broken into the prison’s medical section and consumed the stored pharmaceuticals including the ones used to treat mental illnesses. According to them, this resulted in more violent conduct among the inmates.