A fundamental rights petition has been filed seeking the annulment of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s order pardoning Duminda Silva, Chairman of the Housing Development Authority, who was sentenced to death for the assassination of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, a trade union adviser to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The petition was filed in the Supreme Court by former Member of Parliament Hirunika Premachandra, the daughter of slain Bharatha Lakshman, The petitioner requests that the steps taken by the President to release Duminda Silva on the 24th June under a presidential pardon be declared unconstitutional and that the relevant documents for such a pardon be summoned to court and a full investigation be conducted.
The petitioner has informed the Supreme Court in her petition that Duminda Silva was sentenced to death by a special three-judge bench of the Colombo High Court on October 8, 2011 for the shot to death of four persons, including Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, a trade union adviser to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in Kolonnawa and this sentence was later unanimously upheld by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court.
Hirunika Premachandra stated in her petition that despite the death sentence being upheld by Duminda Silva by the country’s supreme judiciary, President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has taken steps to grant him on a presidential pardon without following the legal provisions of the Constitution.
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) had sent a letter to President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa informing him after the President pardoned Duminda Silva that although the President has the discretion to release any person sentenced by a court of law, he should do so only in accordance with the legal framework prescribed by the Constitution. .
Duminda Silva was the Monitoring MP for the Ministry of Defense during current President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s tenure as the Secretary for Defense Ministry. Following the Presidential pardon, the President appointed Duminda Silva as the Chairman of the Housing Development Authority.