Former MP Duminda Silva released on Presidential Pardon
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Jun 24, 2021 12:29
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Former MP Duminda Silva, who was on the death row, has been released today (24) on a Presidential Pardon.
Media Spokesperson for the Prisons Department Commissioner of Prisons (Rehabilitation & Administration), Chandana Ekanayake has confirmed that Duminda Silva has been pardoned by the President, local media reported.
Silva was released in addition to 93 prisoners including 16 ex-LTTE members who were also pardoned by the president under a presidential pardon on the occasion of Poson Poya.
Duminda Silva and 12 others were accused of 17 charges including the murder of MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and four others on October 8, 2011. A special three-member panel of High Court judges acquitted seven suspects and sentenced five including former MP Silva to death on September 8th 2016.
Duminda Silva, and three others sentenced to death appealed to the Supreme Court to declare the manner in which they were sentenced was unlawful. The Supreme Court on 11 October 2018 rejected the appeal and upheld the lower court’s ruling.
Among them are 16 LLTE suspects and 77 others incarcerated for minor offences.
