by Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

April 23, 2017, 12:00 pm
Former External Affairs Minister Prof. G. Peiris yesterday told The Island that a recent British Court of Appeal ruling that a Sri Lankan asylum seeker had got a doctor to inflict grievous injuries in a bid to deceive British authorities should prompt a wider investigation into unsubstantiated allegations levelled those seeking asylum against the Sri Lankan military.

The Court of Appeal has identified the 35-year-old claimant only by the initials KV. The British Court of Appeal rejected his appeal.

The former law professor said that the British Court of Appeal ruling underscored the importance of a thorough investigation to identify those who had been propagating lies to secure asylum. “The UK case is certainly not an isolated one,” Prof. Peiris said, alleging that the securing citizenship for ‘illegals’ was a lucrative business.

The former minister said that the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier immigration tribunal decision to throw out KV’s asylum claim.

Prof. Peiris pointed out that according to what had transpired in the UK Court of Appeal, the asylum seeker received severe torture marks on his back with the help of a doctor before leaving Sri Lanka six years ago on a fake passport.

The British court has ruled that a ‘cooperative and clandestine’ doctor might have put KV under general anesthetic while the heated iron rods were placed on him.

The Court of Appeal also ruled that KV probably consented to the torture as part of a ruse called ‘self-infliction by proxy.’

The internationally recognised Lankan jurists said every effort should be made to identify the doctor responsible for ‘torturing’ KV as he was certain to have helped others secure asylum in the UK or elsewhere. Prof. Peiris pointed out that the British revealed that KV had produced a medical report from a Professor to justify his claims. Perhaps, the doctor and the Professor had been involved in similar projects over a period of time and were responsible for helping bogus political asylum seekers.

The former External Affairs Minister said that KV had claimed to have been tortured in Aug. 2009, a couple of months after the then government brought the war to a successful conclusion.

The British media reported that in a 22,000-word appeal ruling, one of UK’s most senior judges, Lord Justice Sales, questioned why KV had not experienced any significant infection as a result of the burning. Prof. Peiris asserted that the observation meant that the UK court recognized the fact that KV was treated by the same person (doctor) who tortured him.

Prof. Peiris pointed out that the British court had raised doubts about KV’s involvement with the LTTE, his alleged detention and escape from Sri Lanka.

KV has claimed that he was detained in the aftermath of an LTTE attack on the Bandaranaike International Airport in 2007.

While admitting that though there had been some isolated cases, Sri Lanka never perpetrated atrocities as state policy. Could there be a situation as comical as bogus asylum seekers claiming involvement with the LTTE to deceive foreign governments? Prof. Peiris asked.

Responding to a query by The Island, Prof. Peiris said that UK based Tamil Diaspora groups would exploit the snap general election called by Premier Theresa May for June 8 to advance their cause. The Joint Opposition heavyweight said that Diaspora groups would certainly influence major UK political parties to issue statements on Sri Lanka in the run up to June 8 poll. Such statements would be inimical to Sri Lanka and was meant to induce UK voters of Sri Lankan origin to back a particular political party.

Meanwhile, Prof. Peiris said that he would be shortly writing to the UK headquartered Amnesty International (AI) regarding a briefing given by its Secretary General Salil Shetty in Colombo on April 5, 2017. Shetty raised a range of issues at the media briefing given at Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI). Among the issues that had been taken up by Shetty was disappearances, Prof. Peiris said. Perhaps, the AI could now try to establish the truth about KV whose asylum bid had been rejected by UK Court of Appeal. “Let AI find out whether KV, too, is listed among those who had been missing during the conflict and after.”