SerpApi.Org
After deadly clashes at a prison north of Sri Lanka's capital in early July, an old photo of Colombo Mayor Vraie Cally Balthazaar was altered and redistributed in posts falsely claiming she had accused her own government of shooting inmates who asked for medicine. The photo was previously shared by Balthazaar before she became mayor in December 2020, and an AI detection tool flagged it as having been manipulated with the help of AI.
The image appearing to show Colombo Mayor Vraie Cally Balthazaar holding up a protest sign was shared on X on July 7, 2026.
It appears to show the mayor holding up a Sinhala-language placard that says, " Asked for medicine, received a bullet".
The image surfaced after 21 inmates and 10 guards were killed during violent clashes between rival drug gangs at a prison north of Colombo on July 5 and 6 ( archived link ).
Opposition parties have called for an impartial investigation into what happened at the Negombo Prison (archived here and here ).
The deadly violence has intensified scrutiny of Sri Lanka's chronically overcrowded jails, with official figures showing prisons were operating at roughly four times their intended capacity ( archived link ). The justice ministry said it plans to open new prisons as a temporary measure ( archived link ).
A UN statement issued in Colombo following the deadly riot said that "overcrowding, outdated practices and poor conditions in places of detention have long been recognised as critical challenges across prison systems in Sri Lanka".
The image was also shared in Facebook posts with a similar claim, but it has in fact been digitally altered with the help of AI.
A reverse image search on Google led to a similar photo posted on Balthazaar's Facebook page on December 10, 2020 -- four and a half years before she became mayor ( archived link ).
Its caption reads: "Today is World Human Rights Day. Protesting today, on the Mahara incident, on burial rights, on the right to maternity benefits, on the right to dignity."
In the photo, she is holding a placard that says "Asked for PCR, received a bullet".
Balthazaar was protesting after a deadly riot at the high-security Mahara prison outside of Colombo that left dozens of inmates dead ( archived link ).
Guards reportedly opened fire at the prison after prisoners went on the rampage demanding to be freed because of soaring coronavirus cases in jails (archived here and here ).
Authorities in Sri Lanka later released hundreds of prisoners and said thousands more would be freed after the riot.
An analysis of the image using Google's SynthID Detector concluded it was altered with Google AI ( archived link ).
AFP has previously debunked misleading claims about Sri Lanka's prisons.
