Assistance to and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses (Amendment) Act 2017

Official English translation. Where it differs from the Sinhala or Tamil text, the Act itself says which text prevails.

Official translationFrom Department of Government Printing, unchanged

s 1Short title

This Act may be cited as the Assistance to and

Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses (Amendment)

Act, No. 27 of 2017.

s 2Amendment of section 31 of Act, No. 4 of 2015

Section 31 of the Assistance to and Protection of

Victims of Crime and Witnesses Act, No. 4 of 2015 is hereby amended as follows:—

(1)

in subsection (1) of that section, by the substitution for the words “within Sri Lanka,” , of the words “within or outside Sri Lanka,”;

(2)

by the insertion immediately after subsection (1)

of that section, of the following new subsection:—

“(1A) Where any evidence or statement of any victim of crime or witness is to be recorded from any remote location outside Sri Lanka under subsection (1), it shall be recorded at the Sri Lankan diplomatic mission in the country from where such victim of crime or witness seeks to testify or make the statement.”; and

(3)

by the repeal of subsection (4) of that section, and the substitution therefor, of the following subsection:—

“(4) For the purposes of this section—

(a)

“Court” means a Court before which any criminal proceedings are being conducted; and

(b)

“public officer” includes an officer serving in the Sri Lanka Foreign

Service.”.

s 3Sinhala text to prevail in case of inconsistency

In the event of any inconsistency between the Sinhala and Tamil texts of this Act, the Sinhala text shall prevail.