Army officer remanded for Facebook hate speech

A Sri Lankan court has remanded an army officer, who was arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for allegedly using his Facebook account to spread hate speech, to police custody, local media reported. The CID informed the court that the suspect, a resident of Gampaha district, had shared hate speech through his Facebook page in a manner detrimental to the peace and harmony among religious and ethnic communities. He was arrested on March 17. Colombo Chief Magistrate Lal Ranasinghe Bandara rejected the bail application filed by the defence attorney claiming that the CID had not produced the allegations against the suspect, Krishan Srinath Perera, with evidence. The magistrate further pointed out that the court has no powers to grant bail to the suspect since he was charged under Section 3 of the Civil and Political Rights Act. The magistrate ordered the CID to present the suspect’s computers and mobile phones to the government analyst’s department for examination and produce a report in court. The magistrate also directed the CID to obtain a comprehensive report from the Facebook Company about the particular page and present it on the next hearing date.