A/HRC/7/3/Add.6 page 48 91. The Special Rapporteur recommends that allegations of torture at CID be thoroughly investigated and that detainees of CID be relocated to proper detention facilities. XVII. WELIKADA PRISON, COLOMBO (Visited on 2 and 7 October 2007) 92. The Welikada Prison, although the biggest prison in Sri Lanka, is in principle well kept. In 2006, the institution counted a total of 16,487 prisoners out of which 3,600 were in pretrial detention and 12,887 were convicted. In the wing where persons condemned to death are detained the Special Rapporteur found poor hygienic conditions and rat infestation. The Prison Director showed a very cooperative attitude to the Special Rapporteur. 93. During his first visit, the Special Rapporteur spoke to a few persons who were on death row. The prisoners made no allegation of ill-treatment. On 7 October 2007, the Special Rapporteur interviewed only one person. 94. R.K.G. Jayantha Kulasinghe (also known as Vanni Sutha), aged 45. On 27 September 2007, he was asking officer Nimal in Bogambara Prison for soap. Because he had called him “Sir, officer”, Nimal took him to the “location” branch and beat him. Detainees are expected to address the guards as, among other things, “reverend priest”. He reported that the family of the person he had killed in Kandy a number of years ago bribed Nimal to beat him every now and then for no reason. First, Nimal slapped him on the right ear with his flat hand so that his hearing is still impaired. He did not bleed from the ear but felt dizzy. Then he was brought to the corner of the office which is called “location”. Nimal has his desk there. It was 11 a.m. and many officers were sitting and working in the office, among them also senior officers. Nimal said, “You must learn how to speak to officers. We are the bosses and we can do what we want.” Other detainees were ordered to hold him down while Nimal was beating him on the knees with a baton. He then had to stand spread-eagled against the wall while Nimal was beating him with a thumb-thick knotted electric cable on his back. After each blow Nimal straightened the cable again. After 10 blows he could not stand the pain anymore and sat down. He begged Nimal not to beat him anymore but he continued. In order to protect his face he raised his arms. More than 100 detainees were watching the scene through the office window. Nimal shouted dirty words about his mother at him, ordered him to kneel, apologize to the officers, and demanded that he worship him. When he did as he was ordered Nimal stopped the beating. He told him to go to the prison doctor. His shirt was soaked with blood and torn from the ill-treatment. Already on 30 August he had been ill-treated by the same guard. Normally he is detained in Colombo but because he has also a case in Kandy he was brought to Bogambara Prison for 14 days. After he had complained of the beatings he was transferred back to Colombo. He had shown the marks of the beatings to a judge who had told him to complain to Bogambara’s Chief Jailer. He complained four times but nothing happened. The Chief Jailer told him that he had nothing to do with this. He was not brought to the doctor, and treated the wounds by himself with tea.