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As enacted
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2. Grave breaches of Conventions to be offences

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

(1)

Any person, whether a citizen of Sri Lanka or not, who within or outside Sri Lanka —

(a)

commits or attempts to commit; or

(b)

aids, abets, conspires or procures the commission by any other person of, a grave breach in terms of the relevant Articles of the

Conventions as are set out in Schedule I, Schedule II,

Schedule III and Schedule IV to this Act and are also enumerated in subsection (2) of this section, shall be guilty of an offence.

(2)

For the purposes of subsection (1)—

(a)

a grave breach of the First Convention is a breach of that Convention involving an act referred to in Article 50 of that Convention committed against persons or property protected by that Convention;

(b)

a grave breach of the Second Convention is a breach of that Convention involving an act referred to in

Article 51 of that Convention committed against person or property protected by that Convention ;

(c)

a grave breach of the Third Convention is a breach of that Convention involving an act referred to in

Article 130 of that Convention committed against persons or property protected by that Convention ;

and

(d)

a grave breach of the Fourth Convention is a breach of that Convention involving an act referred to in

Article 147 of that Convention committed against persons or property protected by that Convention.

(3)

For the purposes of this section “aids”, “abets”,

“conspires” and “procures” shall have the same meaning as is assigned to them in the Penal Code (Chapter 19).

(4)

Any person convicted of an offence under this section shall—

(a)

where the offence involves the wilful killing of a person protected by any of the aforesaid

Conventions, be punished with death; and

(b)

for any other offence, be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not exceed twenty years.

Part II

Legal Proceedings in Respect of Protected Persons

Part III

Abuse of the Red Cross and Other Emblems

Part IV

General

Schedules