Allegations of police abuse during raids: Alarm over public strip searches and warrantless arrests

Public Security Minister Tiran Alles has called for an investigation and stern action against officers who harassed two youths at a stop-and-search last Wednesday. However, with the government’s recent crackdown on drug networks under its Yukthiya programme intensifying, more incidents of police harassment are reported.

A youth who wished to remain anonymous told the Sunday Times that he has been stopped about four times since Yukthiya started. “I have shoulder-length hair and a beard, so I get profiled like this often,” he said. Somesh* was stopped and searched on his way to buy groceries with a friend. “A bigmade cop came and threatened to put me in if he finds anything on either of us—my friend is German.” Upon not finding anything on either of them, the officer ordered Somesh to get on a police bus parked nearby for further inspection. “After getting on the bus, an officer proceeded to strip-search me, asking me to remove my pants, pull down my underwear, and proceeded to just feel around wherever he thought I could be hiding something.”

He said this strip search took place in front of suspects the police had arrested and loaded into the bus. "They watch you being stripped of your clothes and your rights.” When nothing was found, Somesh was finally allowed to get off the bus. But the officer pressed on and made Somesh open his mouth for a cavity search. “He looked at my tongue and said I was a ‘user’ to which I replied, ‘Of what?’,” Somesh recounted. The officer had just laughed and asked him to go.

Commenting on the claims of police harassment, human rights activist Ambika Satkunanathan said the Yukthiya tagline should be 'guilty until proven innocent'.

A former Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, she noted that treating every citizen like they are a drug trafficker violates due process. She said that, as arbitrary as these searches and arrests seem, they are also targeted. For example, she said that lawyers had reported that their former clients who had been cleared of drug-related charges are being arrested now without cause simply based on previous arrests or time spent in compulsory rehabilitation.

“We don’t have laws or guidelines on cavity or strip searches or protections against the violations that could take place during such procedures. "

She said searches must be done based on reasonable suspicion, and when a strip search is conducted, it must be done in a way that protects the person’s dignity and privacy. "They cannot strip-search someone in public.”

Another man who had an unpleasant experience was 34-year-old Hasith*. He told the Sunday Times that he was stopped at a checkpoint near Nelum Pokuna. “They did a pat-down in my genital area and then got me to show them inside the lining of my boxers—in broad daylight, just on the side of the road!”

The nature of the operation has come under criticism as most raids and searches were being conducted without warrants in an allegedly arbitrary fashion, with the media joining in on searches to obtain content for their telecast.

Police Spokesman Nihal Thalduwa rejected the allegation that arrests were arbitrary. He told the Sunday Times that arrests were being made under the Poisons, Opium, and Dangerous Drugs Act and other laws, such as the weapons ordinance.

However, the Sunday Times spoke to a suspect who was arrested and was asked to leave his phone in his vehicle before walking over to the back of a police bus to be searched. “I feel like it was my right to ask for a lawyer or at least tell someone what was going on, but they wouldn’t allow that. I was trapped, and no one I knew had any clue; they made sure no one could help me.” He said he was not allowed to call anyone until hours had passed in a cell. He also recounted his experience in the holding cell inside the courtroom, where jailers would kick people, slap them, and punch them to keep order.

SSP Thalduwa also said that narcoticsrelated searches do not require a search warrant since they are based on tipoffs, making searches time-sensitive.

S.77(1) of the Poisons, Opium, and Dangerous Drugs Act states that a search warrant is a must, and S.77(2) permits searches without warrants where they cannot be obtained under subsection 1 without affording the offender an opportunity of escape or concealing evidence of the offence.

Lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah said search warrants are required even if stealth is a priority in an operation.

He explained that searches without warrants are reserved for a few specific situations: when police receive a tipoff on illegal activity that’s about to happen or is happening. Police are also allowed to carry out warrantless searches when someone is arrested in public and their house needs to be immediately searched.

He reiterated that drugs were a serious issue that needed the heavy hand of the law. “But it must always be done within the law and particularly in the context that drug offences tend to be fabricated,” he said, referring to Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakshe’s claim in March this year that certain police stations falsely report drug cases.

Public Security Minister Tiran Alles, however, said the public nature of the operation was garnering the response he wanted—that dealers were closing shops and putting their operations to a stop. "That's all I want.”

Responding to the questions on why affluent neighbourhoods have not been raided yet, the minister told the Sunday Times that the operation would target everyone but that it could not be done overnight. “The operation has been active for just 10 days, so it is unreasonable for anyone to expect us to cover the entire country in that time.”

Minister Alles also said the relevant authorities were working on extraditions and getting treaties in place to process overseas arrests. He reiterated that the Police would go after "anyone, regardless of whether they are a big guy or a small guy.”

Despite the pattern of former offenders being arrested without cause, Minister Alles insists that information for the raids is currently coming from intelligence agencies and informants: “I made it clear that we have decided to get rid of drug distribution networks.”

Over 25,000 suspects have been arrested in over 23,000 raids since Yukthiya was started on December 17 last year. Offenders are either tried for drug trafficking or admitted to rehabilitation centres for treatment.