Three Fundamental Rights (FR) petitions have been filed at the Supreme Court this week challenging the Presidential pardon granted to an Army officer convicted for the massacre in Mirusuvil of Jaffna peninsula. One among them is filed by former member of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) Ambika Satkunanathan.
The petition filed by the former Commissioner of HRCSL seeks Court's intervention to ensure that the power of the Executive to pardon persons is done in a transparent and fair manner, according to objective standards, and the existing gaps and shortcomings are addressed.
The Attorney General, the convict Rathnayake Mudiyanselage Sunil Ratnayake, the Commi-ssioner General of Prisons, Nimal Siripala de Silva who is the Minister of Justice, Human Rights and Legal Reforms, the Secretary to the President and the National Authority for the Protection of Victims of Crimes and Witnesses as Respondents.
Relatives of the deceased filed a separate petition through Attorney at Law Kesavan Sajanthan while another petition was also filed by P. Saravanamuttu, Executive Director of Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA).
Last month, former Army Staff Sergeant R.M. Sunil Ratnayake who was convicted with death sentence over killing eight persons in Mirusuvil, Jaffna in 2002 was given Presidential amnesty by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The former Staff Sergeant was convicted of killing eight people including three children by the High Court which was affirmed by five Bench judges of the Supreme Court last year following a 12 year trial in courts.
On November 27, 2002, the Attorney General indicted him on 19 charges in the murder of Gnanapalan Raviveeran, Sellamuttu Theivakulasingham, Vilvarajah Pratheepan, Sinniah Vilvarajah, Nadesu Jeyachandran, Kathiran Gnanachandran, Gnanachandran Santhan and Vilvarajah Prasath in Mirusuvil of the Jaffna peninsula before a High Court at Trial-at-Bar in Colombo.
Tamar Amitai, a 25-year-old Israeli tourist who went missing in Uppuveli, Trincomalee, was found safe after a three-day joint search operation today.
The Colombo High Court today (28) sentenced former parliamentarian Hirunika Premachandra to three years of Rigorous Imprisonment over charges of the involvement of an abduction.
In his special statement, President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced that debt restructuring agreements will postpone all bilateral loan payments to foreign countries until 2028. Additionally, Sri Lanka will have until 2043 to repay these loans on concessional terms.
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