Proposed crime bill threatens fair trial guarantees and press freedoms - Amnesty International

Human rights group Amnesty International has urged the Sri Lankan government to immediately withdraw proposed legislation aimed at tackling organised crime, saying that the bill confers sweeping powers that severely erode fundamental rights and fair trial guarantees.

The global watchdog voiced its objections following the tabling of the Prevention of Organised Crimes Bill in Parliament in Colombo on 6 October.

Under the proposed legal framework, individuals suspected of belonging to an organised criminal group could face up to one year of detention before charges are filed, alongside a further year in pre-trial detention.

Law enforcement officers would receive expanded authority to conduct searches without securing judicial warrants, while also gaining access to personal data from telecommunications and digital providers without court oversight.

The draft law further permits police officers to admit certain confessions as trial evidence and places restrictions on media coverage of legal proceedings.

Amnesty International South Asia Director Smriti Singh said that the legislation incorporates several of the most restrictive elements of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, threatening to entrench official impunity and revive conditions that enable arbitrary detention and torture.

She urged the government to scrap the proposed measure entirely and engage in public consultations to establish anti-crime strategies that adhere to international human rights standards.

The rights organisation also highlighted subjective provisions that allow courts to judge group membership based on visual identifiers such as clothing, tattoos, hand signals, language, past behavior, and personal associations.

It warned that using such broad criteria creates significant risks of discriminatory profiling while replacing objective evidence with mere suspicion in judicial proceedings.

Within the text of the bill, an organised criminal group is defined as a structured entity of three or more individuals acting together over a period to secure financial or material advantages.