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Presidential pardon for Royal Park murder convict on death row
View(s):A presidential pardon has been granted to murder convict Sharmantha Jayamaha who was sentenced to death over the murder of a teenage girl at the Royal Park apartment complex in Rajagiriya in 2005.
Prisons Commissioner General T.M.J.W. Tennakoon said yesterday they received a Presidential Secretariat document granting a pardon to the convict. In 2006, the Colombo High Court passed a 12-year prison sentence on Mr. Jayamaha for the murder of 19-year-old Yvonne Johnson. However, he was given a death sentence by the Court of Appeal in 2012 after the Attorney General’s Department appealed. In 2014, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence. Speaking at the National Youth Model UN conference in Colombo recently, President Maithripala Sirisena said he was considering Jayamaha’s pardon following a request.