A fundamental rights petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking an interim injunction restraining Duminda Silva, the chairman of the Housing Development Authority, pardoned by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa when he was convicted and sentenced to death for killing trade union adviser Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra during Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency.
The Attorney General is the respondent in this petition filed by Attorney-at-Law Ghazali Hussain, a former Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. According to the petition, Duminda Silva, who was sentenced to death, has been granted a presidential pardon under Articles 34 and 34 (1) of the Constitution.
The power to grant pardons is vested in the President by the Constitution, but the Bar Association of Sri Lanka informed the President in a letter in June that “this power could not be exercised arbitrarily, without the advice of the Court and the Attorney General and the recommendation of the Minister of Justice”.
Petitioner Ghazali Hussain has informed the court that none of these procedures have been followed in the process of granting pardon to Duminda Silva who was sentenced to death. The former Human Rights Commissioner also pointed out that the President should explain to the Bar Association of Sri Lanka the basis on which the prisoner was pardoned.
The petitioner, the former Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission has asked to declare that the process of granting presidential pardon to Duminda Silva is against the law and that his fundamental rights have been violated.
The Attorney General filed a case in the Colombo High Court on September 08, 2016 against Duminda Silva and 13 others on charges for death of former Member of Parliament Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra.
Following the trial, five defendants were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The appeals filed by Duminda Silva and two others against the death sentence were rejected by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on October 11, 2018 and the Colombo High Court unanimously upheld their death sentence.
A year after Gotabhaya Rajapaksa became President, Duminda Silva was granted presidential pardon.