Michael Anthony Fernando brought two fundamental rights petitions to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka relating to a rejected worker¡¦s compensation claim. The court consolidated the two into one petition for hearing and rejected it. Fernando then submitted a further petition, objecting on the grounds that the two should have been heard separately and that his constitutional right to a fair trial was violated. This petition named the chief justice of Sri Lanka and two other judges, among others, who had decided against him, and thus, Fernando requested that the new petition not be brought before these judges.

However, on Feb. 6, 2003, the chief justice sat on the bench that heard Fernando¡¦s motion that he not be allowed to hear the petition. The court then summarily sentenced Fernando to one year of rigorous imprisonment for contempt of court without providing a reason or giving Fernando an opportunity to make a defence. He was sent to jail immediately and given no recourse to appeal against the sentence.

While in jail, Fernando was subject to cruel and inhuman treatment. During his first few days in prison, he succumbed to a serious illness that was not adequately addressed by the authorities. Moreover, his family was not informed of his whereabouts when he was transferred to the hospital. On his discharge from the hospital on Feb. 10, 2003, he was assaulted several times during his removal to the prison, causing damage to his spinal cord. Back in prison, he was stripped naked and left near a putrid toilet for more than a day after which he began to urinate blood. He was finally returned to the hospital with serious injuries.

Dato Param Cumaraswamy, the U.N. special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, visited Fernando when he was in the hospital and reported that he had been severely assaulted while in prison. It was in his press conference in Colombo on Feb. 27 that Cumaraswamy remarked that "the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has done an act of injustice. A man who came to seek justice was served with injustice."

Fernando has since submitted an application for a remedy to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, with the assistance of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), on the grounds that he has exhausted all avenues for remedies in Sri Lanka.

Fernando was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1954 and is an English teacher by profession. He is married with children.