HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF SRI LANKA, Annual Report 2020  Action taken on the incidents of violence at the Mahara prison The Commission commenced a suo motu inquiry pursuant to news reports received regarding an incident of prison unrest at the Mahara prison which culminated in the deaths of several prisoners and serious injuries to other prisoners and prison officers. It was reported that unrest occurred following rumours of COVID-19 infected prisoners being transferred to the Mahara Prison from other prisons which were overcrowded. Two fact-finding and monitoring missions were conducted to the Prison on 30 November and 01 December 2020 to ascertain the nature of the incidents which occurred. Despite the statutory mandate of the Commission which provides it unimpeded access to places of detention for monitoring purposes, on both occasions the officials of the HRCSL experienced delays in entering the facility and speaking to the prisoners. Based on the findings of these visits the Commission issued interim recommendations for immediate implementation to the relevant authorities. Further, the HRCSL notified the Commissioner General of Prisons (CGP) to compile and furnish a list of the deceased prisoners, the injured, the COVID19 infected prisoners, and of the prisoners who were directed to quarantine. The Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) of the Colombo North hospital was also directed to send in the postmortem reports of the 11 deceased prisoners and the reports of the injured prisoners treated by him. The Commission in this correspondence noted that the bodies form part of an investigation that has already commenced and therefore, they should be preserved in a manner compatible with health requirements but not be cremated or destroyed even though the regulations in relation to disposal of bodies of those infected by the COVID-19 virus requires cremation. It also requested the JMO to seek permission from the Magistrate to transfer the bodies to the mortuary at the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Kotikawatte as it has the expertise and facilities to perform autopsies on people infected with COVID-19. The JMO informed the Commission that the postmortems of the 11 deceased prisoners were not yet concluded due to magisterial order to transfer the remains of the deceased to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Kotikawatte and for the postmortems to be conducted by a multidisciplinary committee. The JMO further requested for time to submit the required report to the Commission as a similar report has been requested by the magistrate, which 24