Free Speech=Jail (S.B. Dissanayake)
Again, I repeat my caveat on Sri Lankan politics which is, in its shortest form, ‘don’t beat me up’. In this case I guess I should add, ‘don’t sentence me to hard-labour’.
“In one of the most sensational convictions of recent years, the Supreme Court yesterday jailed former minister and strongman S.B.Dissanayake for two years with hard labour after finding him guilty of scandalising, ridiculing and trying to create public hostility against the highest court in the land.
Amidst tight security, including body checks, the Supreme Court Bench comprising Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, Justices Shirani A. Bandaranayake, T.B. Weerasuriya, N.E. Dissanayake and Raja Fernando ruled that Mr. Dissanayake’s speech at a ceremony in Habaraduwa in November last year had struck at the root of the determination of justice by court by eroding public confidence and whipping up public opinion against the decision and process of the court. (Island)”
The speech in question said something along the lines of ‘we will not accept the decision of the Supreme Court’ – referring to another decision. For this he was sentenced to 2 years hard labor and banned from civil service for 7 years (?!). I’m sleepy and I only have two comments.
1. Freedom of Speech?
2. An impartial judiciary? The party claiming libel is… The Supreme Court. The judge of the case is … the Supreme Court. I’m no lawyer, but in my memory Supreme Court Justices traditionally recuse themselves from cases which directly concern them.
According to the statute, justices, judges, and magistrates should recuse themselves if they have a personal bias concerning anyone in the case, or independent knowledge of the facts in dispute; if they worked on the case as a private or government lawyer; or if they or close relatives have a financial interest in the case. (Slate)
That’s an American example, but I think the concept of blind justice is fairly clear – and important. In this case the Supreme Court is deciding on a case on which they have a obvious personal bias, since they are the party claiming libel. That is, the Prosecution’s Client is … the Judges. That makes the accused, in legal terms, completely fucked. However, the actual legal passage in question seems to read.
Article 105(3) says the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal shall each be a superior court of record and shall have all the powers of such court including the power to punish for contempt of itself, whether committed in the court itself or elsewhere, with imprisonment or fine or both as the court may deem fit.
Or, in short, the Court retains the right to arbritary censorship and tyranny. This Supreme Court has decided that they didn’t like someone’s speech, and they’ve put him in jail. I think that is wrong. I hope that this ruling will – to quote the Justices Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, Justices Shirani A. Bandaranayake, T.B. Weerasuriya, N.E. Dissanayake and Raja Fernando – “strike at the root of the determination of justice by court, erode public confidence and whip up public opinion against the decision and process of the court.”
I started off not really liking General Sarath Fonseka, him being part of the aggressive war effort. I didn’t support the war (largely cause I thought it would fail), and I thought Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Fonseka were gleefully stomping everything. Fonseka even came out and said “I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people,” in 2008 (
General Sarath Fonseka was arrested on a bunch of trumped up charges, but mainly for daring to threaten Mahinda in a Presidential election. Despite his poor health, Fonseka was arrested in February 2010 and sentence to three years. Word on the street now, however, is that he’ll be released soon. Like any day now. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has told 
I’ve been testing a lot of apps. A very interesting one is iPlayboy, from Playboy magazine. It’s bad porn but a good magazine, especially since you can read issues from its cultural heyday – the Mad Men era of the 60s.
I’m going to get back to blogging. I buy a shitload of stuff on my iPad. Not that I like spending money, and the exchange rate terrifies me, but it’s just so easy, and so good. For example, I’ve been reading comics again. Spiderman, and 
[...] wave Radios: Terrorists! Or rescue workers, but who can tell? SB Dissanayake: Cause if you criticize the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court will put you in jail If you [...]
Why not we gather in about 5,000 and shout against the supreme court. So are they going to put all 5,000 of us in jail. We can make a mock out of the supreme court if we all start condemn the judgement for SB.
Ask the world not to give as Tsunami aid to Sri Lankan Govt., as they use that to maintain their 80 odd ministers and the kitchen cabinet of the president.
I have already started calling the judgements as `Balu’ judgements. I think everybody should start calling the supreme court as the Balu court and the judgements as Balu judgements.
Hi Lakmisara,
Your posting reveals the nature of your understanding and common sense. Supreme court of a country is the back bone of the civilized society of that country. It is meant to defend the civilized people from thugs and goons. Anybody can challenge/critize the supreme court decisions in a proper/appcepted way, but not like uncivilized animals. You can gather 5,000 and wooo the supreme court. In fact you are not wooing the supreme court, but the whole civilized society. Don’t forget, today, you are here to post, because supreme court have proted you from thugs/rapists and goons.