Thursday, October 29, 2015

Baton raised, the shocking moment a Sri Lankan cop brutally beats a mother in the street: New report reveals 'lawless' police use electric shock torture and rub chillies into suspects' faces to extract confessions

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT-29 October 2015
Shock video of moment Sri Lankan officer beats mother, 36, in the street
The woman, Weerasinghe Arachchilage Kanthilatha, who worked as a prostitute, refused to perform sex act on the officer
He vowed to 'teach her a lesson' and brutally beat her before witnesses, who secretly filmed attack
Comes as new investigation reveals police torture is endemic in Sri Lanka

Baton raised, this is the shock moment a Sri Lankan police officer unleashes a savage beating on a mother in the street.

The unnamed officer had reportedly demanded Weerasinghe Arachchilage Kanthilatha, who worked as a prostitute, to perform a sex act on him, which she had refused.

Humiliated, the officer threatened to 'teach her a lesson' and thrashed her repeatedly with an iron cane in the street.

Brutal: The report spoke to victims of police brutality who had their faces rubbed in glass, had their wrists trussed up by ropes. Here, a Sri Lankan police officer beats a female protester during rally

Shocking: This is the moment a Sri Lankan police officer is filmed beating young mother Weerasinghe Arachchilage Kanthilatha with an iron cane in the street after she allegedly refused to perform sex act on he

Victim: Young mother Weerasinghe Arachchilage Kanthilatha, 36, is suing the Sri Lankan police after she was battered in the street by one of its officers

Kanthilatha says she was forced into the sex trade through desperate poverty and was introduced to clients through a bad boyfriend a few years ago.

“We stayed in a small hotel for about two weeks. One day he went away leaving me there, and never came back. The hotel owner told me there was a big unpaid bill, and to recover the money, I would have to sell myself,” she told the Sri Lankan Sunday Times.

The video went viral in Sri Lanka and Kanthilatha is demanding five million rupees (£23,130) compensation.

She filed a Fundamental Rights petition in the country's Supreme Court last October, complaining that she was assaulted with a thick cane and kicked by a policeman.

The claim calls the Court to order the Inspector General of Police to sack all involved parties for torture, cruelty, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Kanthilatha's case emerges as a new Human Rights Watch investigation reveals Sri Lankan police routinely use torture as a short-cut to extracting confessions.

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