Mr. Pattani Razeek, Managing Trustee of the Community Trust Fund (CTF) and a member of the Executive Committee of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), was last seen in Polonnaruwa, a city in the north central province of Sri Lanka, in the afternoon of February 11, 2010, as he was travelling together with other staff members from CTF on their way home from a mission.
For over a year, the police made no attempt to apprehend and question the main suspect in Mr. Razeek’s disappearance, Mr. Shahabdeen Nowshaadh, a former CTF employee, despite evidence linking him to several ransom calls made to Mr. Razeek’s family on Mr. Razeek’s mobile number, following his disappearance. It is not until July 2011 that Mr. Nowshaadh was arrested. On July 28, 2011, police exhumed Mr. Razeek’s body in Kavathamunai, Uddamaveli, Valaichchenai province, eastern Sri Lanka.
Yet, three years after Mr. Pattani Razeek’s disappearance and murder, the police have not made any significant progress in Mr. Razeek’s case. Although a post mortem was conducted on August 2, 2011, the police have failed to submit the resulting report to the family. Besides, the family has no further information on the progress of the investigation. On November 3, 2011, Mr. Nowshaadh was released on bail by the Pollonnaruwa High Court. The second arrested suspect, Mr. Ismail Mohamed Mushdeen, was also subsequently released on bail.
Furthermore, the Observatory is concerned by the ongoing enforced disappearance of Mr. Sinnavan Stephen Sunthararaj, Project Manager at the Centre for Human Rights and Development (CHRD), well known for documenting cases of child abuse in Jaffna and District Child Coordinator from 2003 to 2005, who was last seen in Colombo in the evening of May 7, 2009, when he was abducted by unknown gunmen in army uniforms, allegedly officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). He had just been released from Kollupitiya police station, where he had spent two months in detention without charge. Since May 2009, no information could be obtained about his whereabouts.
Right after his abduction, officers from the Cinnamon Garden police station collected statements of witnesses, mainly of Mrs. Sunthararaj, who identified one of the perpetrators as one of the CID officers who had previously visited her home for inquiries while her husband was held at Kollupitiya police station. However, no investigation was initiated.
In December 2009, the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Palitha Kohana, revealed at a meeting with the Embassy of the United States and European Union officials that Mr. Sunthararaj had not been abducted but arrested, probably by intelligence services. Since then, Mr. Sunthararaj’s wife has been writing to the Office of the President of Sri Lanka, urging him to reveal Mr. Sunthararaj’s place of detention, and calling for his immediate release. Despite her efforts, she has still not received any response.
The Observatory strongly condemns the ongoing impunity in Mr. Pattani Razeek’s murder as well as Mr. Sunthararaj’s enforced disappearance. The Observatory fears for his physical and psychological integrity, and urges the Sri Lankan authorities to take prompt action in order to disclose the whereabouts of Mr. Sunthararaj and release him immediately as his abduction and detention seem to merely aim at sanctioning his human rights activities. It further calls upon the authorities of Sri Lanka to effectively work towards bringing those responsible for Mr. Razeek’s murder before a competent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law.
The Observatory more generally urges the authorities of Sri Lanka to guarantee that human rights defenders can carry out their activities free of any hindrances, to put an end to all acts of harassment against human rights defenders and to conform to the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights instruments ratified by Sri Lanka.