Intentional burn injury: Assessment of allegations of self-infliction

An observational data set was examined in detail, comprising medico-legal reports for Sri Lankans with heated metal object burn injuries documented in 2011-14 by the Medico-Legal Reports Service at Freedom from Torture. All had described detention in Sri Lanka since the end of the civil war in 2009. The study reviewed the documented evidence of these injuries alongside other physical and psychological evidence attributed to torture and relevant contextual factors documented in each case. Findings were compared with previous research on torture in Sri Lanka and patterns of injury identified in forensic medicine for both self-infliction and self-infliction by proxy. Thorough examination of the evidence found no indication in this data set to suggest the possibility of self-infliction or self-infliction by proxy and supported the view that, as indicated in the Istanbul Protocol, the overall conclusion on likelihood of torture should be made on evaluation of all the physical and psychological evidence over and above the scrutiny of an individual lesion.