Sri Lanka Supreme Court suspends special presidential pardon granted to Duminda Silva

The Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has issued an interim order suspending the special presidential pardon granted to former MP Duminda Silva while he was serving a death sentence.

Supreme Court has ordered the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to arrest former parliamentarian and murder convict Duminda Silva, effectively nullifying a presidential pardon granted to him a year ago.

A travel ban has also been imposed on the former MP while the Attorney General has been directed to assist the CID in his arrest.

On June 24 in 2021, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa granted presidential pardon to several prison inmates including Duminda Silva, in view of the Poson full moon Poya day along with 93 prisoners including 16 ex-Tamil Tiger combatants.

Former parliamentarian Duminda Silva was jailed in September 2016 after the Colombo High Court found him and several others guilty in the murder of former MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra.

Subsequently, fundamental rights petitions were filed by Sumana Premachandra, the wife of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, a former Commissioner of Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) President’s Counsel Gasali Hussain and several others, challenging the special presidential pardon granted to Duminda Silva.

Allowing the hearing of three FR petitions, the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Preethi Padman Surasena, Yasantha Kodagoda and Achala Vengappuli moved to revoke the presidential pardon.

The presidential pardon on Silva and his subsequent release from prison was widely condemned.