Court orders postmortem for 27 victims of Negombo Prison clash

Negombo Chief Magistrate Shilani Perera ordered the Specialist Judicial Medical Officer of the Negombo Base Hospital, W.S.R. Wickramaratne, to conduct post-mortems and submit reports regarding the bodies of seven prison officers and 20 inmates who died following the unrest at the Negombo prison.

The court instructed Negombo Headquarters Chief Inspector Thilina Damsith Hettiarachchi to record statements from the families of the deceased and release the bodies to relatives after the completion of the examinations.

The Magistrate further ordered the police to submit a detailed report regarding the incident.

These directives were issued after police officers presented a B-report to the court.

The police had requested the order to allow the judicial medical officer to proceed with the post-mortems for the 27 victims. The court adjourned the case after issuing the instructions.