Cabinet approval to trial video testimony for bail hearings

• Proposal to be implemented in 23 courts at 12 locations in four prisons within Colombo

Cabinet has given approval to enable prisoners to give testimony for bail hearings using video conferencing on a trial basis.

The effort was approved following a Cabinet paper presented by Justice Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva. The Cabinet paper notes that there are about 15,000 remand prisoners in 23 prisons across the country and about 5,400 of them have to be produced before Courts daily.

Therefore the Justice, Human Rights and Legal Reforms Ministry has designed a program for the Court to consider their bail applications while in prison, using video conferencing.

As the first phase of the program, Cabinet approval was given to implement the proposed program in 23 courts and 12 locations in four prisons in the Colombo District.