Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation Act, 2000

An Act to give effect to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation; and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

WHEREAS the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation was adopted in Rome on the Tenth of March One Thousand Nine Hundred and Eighty Eight:

AND WHEREAS Sri Lanka intends to accede to the aforesaid Convention;

AND WHEREAS it is necessary to make legal provision to give effect to Sri Lanka's obligations under the aforesaid Convention:

NOW THEREFORE, be it enacted by the Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka as follows:--

1. This Act may be cited as the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation Act, 2000 and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister, by Order published in the Gazette, certifies as the date on which the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation adopted in Rome on March 10, 1988, (hereinafter referred to as "the Convention") enters into force in respect of Sri Lanka.

2. The Minister may, from time to time, by Order published in the Gazette, certify the States which are parties to the Convention. A State in respect of which an Order is made under this section is hereinafter referred to as "a Convention State".

3. (1) Any person who, unlawfully and intentionally--

(a) seizes, or exercises control over, a ship by force or threat of force or by any other form of intimidation;
(b) commits an act of violence against a person on board a ship, which act is likely to endanger the safe navigation of such ship;
(c) destroys, or causes damage to, a ship or its cargo so as to endanger, or to be likely to endanger, the safe navigation of that ship;
(d) places or causes to be placed, in any manner whatsoever, a device or substance which is likely to destroy or cause damage to a ship or its cargo and so as to endanger, or to be likely to endanger, the safe navigation of that ship;
(e) destroys, or seriously damages, maritime navigational facilities or seriously interferes with their operation, so as to endanger, or to be likely to endanger, the safe navigation of a ship;
(f) communicates information which he knows to be false, thereby endangering the safe navigation of a ship; or
(g) injures or kills any person, in connection with the commission or the attempted commission of any of the offences set out in paragraphs (a) to (f) of this subsection,

shall be guilty of an offence under this Act.

(2) Any person who--

(a) attempts to commit;
(b) aids or abets the commission of;
(c) threatens to commit;

an offence under subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence under this Act.

In this subsection, "abet" has the same meaning as in section 100 and 101 of the Penal Code.

(3) A person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) or subsection (2) of this section shall on conviction, after trial on indictment, by the High Court be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding twenty years.

(4) (a) Where the master of a ship, whether registered in Sri Lanka or not, has reasonable grounds to suspect that any person on board that ship has committed an offence under subsection (1) or subsection (2), he may deliver such person to an appropriate officer in Sri Lanka or in a Convention State.

(b) Where the master of a ship intends to deliver any person in Sri Lanka or any other Convention State in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (a), he shall give notice thereof to an appropriate officer in Sri Lanka or the Convention State, as the case may be--
(i) of his intention to deliver that person to an appropriate officer in Sri Lanka or the Convention State, as the case may be; and
(ii) of his reasons for doing so.

(c) Any notice under paragraph (b) by a master of a ship shall be given, wherever practicable, before that ship has entered the territorial sea of Sri Lanka or that Convention State, as the case may be.

(d) Where the master of a ship delivers any person to an appropriate officer in Sri Lanka or a Convention State, as the case may be, he shall--
(i) make to an appropriate officer in Sri Lanka or the Convention State, as the case may be, such oral or written statements relating to the alleged offence as that officer may reasonably require; and
(ii) deliver to that appropriate officer such other evidence relating to the alleged offence as is in the master's possession.

(e) The master of a ship who fails, without reasonable cause, to comply with the provision of paragraph (b) or paragraph (d) shall be guilty of an offence under this Act, and shall on conviction be punished with a fine not exceeding fifty thousand rupees.

(f) In this subsection--
"appropriate officer" means--
(i) in relation to Sri Lanka, a police officer or an officer of the Immigration and Emigration Department; and
(ii) in relation to any other Convention State, an officer discharging functions corresponding to the functions discharged by the officers referred to in subparagraph (i);
"Master" in relation to a ship, has the same meaning as in the Merchant Shipping Act, No. 52 of 1971.

4. (1) The High Court of Sri Lanka holden in Colombo or the High Court established by Article 54p of the Constitution for the Western Province shall, notwithstanding anything in any other law, have exclusive jurisdiction to try offences under this Act.

(2) Where an act constituting an offence under this Act is committed outside Sri Lanka, the High Commission referred to in subsection (1) shall have jurisdiction to try such offence as if it were committed within Sri Lanka if-
(a) the offence is committed against, or on board, a ship registered in Sri Lanka at the time the offence is committed;
(b) the person who committed the act is present in Sri Lanka;
(c) such act is committed by a citizen of Sri Lanka or by stateless person who has his habitual residence in Sri Lanka;
(d) during the commission of such act, a citizen of Sri Lanka is seized, threatened, injured or killed;
(e) such act is committed in order to compel the Government of Sri Lanka to do, or abstain from doing, any act.

5. Where a person who is not a citizen of Sri Lanka is arrested for an offence under this Act, such person shall be entitled--

(a) to communicate without delay, with the nearest appropriate representative of the State of which he is a national or which is otherwise entitled to protect his rights, or if he is a stateless person, with the nearest appropriate representative of the State in the territory of which he was habitually resident; and
(b) to be visited by a representative of that State.

6. The Extradition Law, No. 8 of 1977 is hereby amended by the addition, immediately before Part B of the Schedule to that Law, of the following item:--

"(45) An offence covered by the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, signed at Rome on March 10, 1988."

7. Where there is an extradition arrangement made by the Government of Sri Lanka with any Convention State in force on the date on which this Act comes into operation, such arrangement shall be deemed, for the purposes of the Extradition Law, No. 8 of 1977, to include provision for extradition in respect of the offences specified in the Schedule to this Act.

8. Where there is no extradition arrangement made by the Government of Sri Lanka with any convention State, the Minister may, by Order published in the Gazette, treat the Convention, for the purposes of the Extradition Law, No. 8 of 977, as an extradition arrangement made by the Government of Sri Lanka with that Convention State providing for extradition in respect of the offences specified in the Schedule to this Act.

9. The Government of Sri Lanka shall afford all such assistance to, and may through the Minister request all such assistance from, a convention State as may be necessary for the investigation and prosecution of an offence under section 3 or of an offence specified in the Schedule to this Act including, assistance to the taking of evidence and statement and the serving of process.

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

11. In this Act, "ship" means a vessel of any type whatsoever not permanently attached to the seabed and includes dynamically supported craft, submersibles and other floating craft but does not include a warship, a ship owned or operated by a State or used as a naval auxiliary or for customs or police purposes or a vessel which has been withdrawn from navigation or is laid up.

SCHEDULE [Section 7,8,9]

(a) Unlawful and intentional seizure or exercise of control over a ship by force, or threat of force, by any other form of intimidation;

(b) Unlawful and intentional commission of an act of violence against a person on board a ship, which act is likely to endanger the safe navigation of that ship

(c) Unlawful and intentional destruction of, or causing of damage to, a ship or its cargo so as to endanger, or to be likely to endanger, the safe navigation of that ship;

(d) Unlawful and intentional placing, or causing the placing of, in any manner whatsoever, of a device or substance which is likely to destroy or cause damage to a ship or its cargo so as to endanger, or to be likely to endanger, the safe navigation of that ship;

(e) Unlawful and intentional destruction of, or the causing of serious damage to, maritime navigational facilities or serious interference with their operation, so as to endanger, or to be likely to endanger, the safe navigation of a ship;

(f) Unlawful and intentional communication of information known to be false, thereby endangering the safe navigation of a ship; or

(g) Unlawful and intentional injuring or killing of any person, in connection with the commission or the attempted commission of any of the offences set out in paragraph (a) to (f);

(h) Attempt to commit any of the offences set out in paragraphs (a) to (g);

(i) Aiding or abetting the commission of, any of the offences set out in paragraph (a) to (g).