From Welikada to Negombo: four decades of impunity in Sri Lanka’s prisons

On 5th and 6th July this year, Negombo Prison became the latest site of deadly violence within Sri Lanka’s prison system. At least 28 people were killed, including prisoners and prison officers, more than 100 were injured and hundreds of inmates were transferred to facilities across the country. Reports have since emerged of reprisals, torture and other ill-treatment as well as of the deaths in custody of two transferred prisoners. For the families still seeking answers, Negombo is a devastating tragedy. This case is also a stark warning of what happens when overcrowding, neglect and abuse are allowed to persist without accountability.

This was not an isolated failure. It belongs to a long and shameful history of deaths in state custody, from the killing of Tamil political prisoners at Welikada in 1983 to Bindunuwewa in 2000, Welikada again in 2012, Mahara in 2020 and now Negombo. Each tragedy has been followed by official promises and inquiries. Yet the same failures return: unsafe conditions, weak oversight, excessive force and investigations that rarely deliver justice.

The Sri Lankan state has an absolute responsibility to protect every person it deprives of liberty. Prisoners cannot leave dangerous conditions or protect themselves from violence at the hands of officials or other inmates while confined in prison. Their physical safety and wellbeing depend on the oversight and management of prison authorities. The atrocity at Negombo therefore demands more than another inquiry. It demands an independent investigation, protection for transferred prisoners, accountability for custodial deaths and reports of excessive use of force, torture and ill-treatment,  and urgent structural reform. Unless Sri Lanka breaks this cycle of violence and impunity, Negombo will not be the last prison tragedy.

A history the State has failed to confront

In July 1983, during the Black July anti-Tamil pogrom, 53 Tamil political prisoners were killed inside Welikada Prison; 35 were killed on 25th July and a further 18 on 27th July. The killings took place inside this high-security prison where the State had complete control over the safety of those detained. Serious allegations have long surrounded the role of prison officials and their failure to protect Tamil prisoners from attack. More than four decades later, no one has been held criminally accountable, though after a long fight, some compensation was granted to the families of those killed. In 1985 civil cases for compensation against the State were filed by relatives of 30 of the murdered prisoners on the basis of a failure to provide the prisoners with adequate protection. In April 1994, the cases were settled by agreement between both sides, with the State undertaking to make certain ex gratia payments to the relatives without admitting liability.

In October 2000, a mob attacked Tamil detainees at the Bindunuwewa Rehabilitation Centre while police were present. Human Rights Watch documented allegations that police officers failed to protect those in their custody and that some officers participated in the violence. 27 young people were killed. A Law & Society Trust 2005 report found that the failure of justice began well before the Supreme Court acquittals, with inadequate police investigations followed by an unnecessarily weak prosecution presented by the Attorney General’s Department. Although several people were initially convicted, the convictions were later overturned. Once again, the families of those killed were denied justice.

In November 2012, 27 prisoners were killed at Welikada Prison after a search operation involving the Special Task Force and prison officials. Evidence that emerged later raised serious concerns that some prisoners had been called out by name and killed after the immediate unrest had ended. Allegations of summary executions and of the manipulation of evidence followed. Investigations and court proceedings continued for years but no one was ultimately held accountable. 

At Mahara Prison in November 2020, 11 prisoners were killed and 117 suffered serious injuries during unrest amid fears over the spread of COVID-19 in severely overcrowded prisons. A magistrate later found that prison officers had used excessive force and ordered further action.

SLC’s partner, the Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners (CPRP), published an annual report in 2025 that describes the failure to secure justice for each case of custodial killings as part of a wider pattern of State support for impunity. The circumstances of each case differ but the pattern is unmistakable. People die inside institutions under state control. Investigations are announced. Public attention fades. Accountability does not follow. Negombo is not an exception to this history; it is its latest chapter.

The warning signs were already there

Negombo Prison was reportedly holding around 2,400 people in a facility designed for approximately 650. CPRP had already documented the scale of the crisis. Its May 2026 fact sheet found that Sri Lanka’s prisons had an authorised capacity of 10,395 but an average daily population of 29,789 in 2024. This meant the system was operating at 286.6 per cent of its intended capacity.

These conditions were dangerous and well known. Overcrowding restricts access to sanitation, healthcare, food, sleep and legal assistance. It increases the risk of disease, violence and exploitation and places both prisoners and prison officers in unsafe conditions. The pressure is intensified by prolonged remand detention, unaffordable bail and the imprisonment of large numbers of people for drug related offences. 65.5 per cent of prisoners in Negombo were being held in connection with drug-related offences. Many would be better served through treatment, harm reduction and community support.

Only days before the events at Negombo, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture completed its second visit to Sri Lanka. It found that seven years after its first visit, people deprived of liberty had yet to experience meaningful improvements. It highlighted prolonged pretrial detention, overcrowding and inadequate conditions and warned that the absence of an effective and independent investigative mechanism continued to foster impunity. The Subcommittee also stressed the need for an independent and properly resourced National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) to monitor places of detention and prevent torture and ill treatment. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka adopted a new Standard Operating Procedure in June 2026 which provides for regular and unannounced visits, private interviews, protection against reprisals and access to medical and detention records. That framework is welcome but it must now be implemented in full. 

Protection in the aftermath of Negombo

After the violence,authorities transferred as many as 734 prisoners to other institutions, including facilities in Jaffna and Batticaloa. Two transferred prisoners subsequently died in custody and Sri Lankan human rights groups reported allegations that others had been beaten or subjected to ill-treatment. No prisoner should be punished collectively for the actions of others. Transfer does not remove the State’s duty of care. 

Negombo must be a turning-point

The Sri Lankan authorities have announced investigations into the violence. These must establish how the unrest began, how weapons entered the prison, whether force used by officials was lawful and how transferred prisoners were treated. They must also investigate the two subsequent deaths in custody and every allegation of torture and ill-treatment. However, another internal inquiry is not enough. Any investigation must be independent of the institutions and officials whose conduct is under examination. It must protect witnesses, preserve evidence, publish its findings and allow families to participate through legal representatives.

The Government should also publish the reports produced by the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture following its 2019 and 2026 visits. Their purpose is to prevent abuse and improve detention conditions. There is no credible justification for withholding them from Parliament, civil society, victims’ families and the public.

SLC calls on the Sri Lankan Government to:

– Establish a prompt, independent and transparent investigation into the Negombo violence, the two later custodial deaths and all allegations of torture and ill-treatment.

– Grant the Human Rights Commission unrestricted access to all facilities holding transferred prisoners.

– Protect prisoners, witnesses, families and officials who provide evidence.

– Publish the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture reports from 2019 and 2026.

– Ensure that the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has the independence, funding, specialist staff and access required to carry out its role as Sri Lanka’s National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT). The NPM is responsible for conducting regular unannounced visits to prisons, police stations and other places of detention to identify risks of torture and ill-treatment before abuses occur. 

– Reduce overcrowding through bail reform, alternatives to detention and health centred responses to drug dependency.

– Implement outstanding judicial orders and recommendations relating to all previous cases of mass prison deaths.

– Consult prisoners, families and civil society organisations (including CPRP) on prison reform.

– The Government must publish a full list of those transferred and where they are being held. 

– Families, lawyers and independent medical professionals must be given access and every allegation of torture or abuse must be independently investigated.