CBK assassination accused among prisoners pardoned

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has pardoned 08 LTTE prisoners, including three who were convicted for attempting to assassinate former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (CBK).

The President’s Media Division (PMD) said the President had granted amnesty to the prisoners by the powers assigned to the President, under Article 34 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka, in connection with granting amnesty to a person convicted by a court of Sri Lanka.

As a result of several discussions between Tamil MPs and the President on several occasions, steps were taken to release these prisoners.

Before their release, a preliminary investigation had been carried out on them with the intervention of the Ministry of Defence on the instructions of the President.

The PMD said that this decision has been reached after consulting the Minister of Justice and through him the Attorney General about the consent report.

Three of the LTTE prisoners who were pardoned were those accused of attempting to assassinate former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

The PMD said before proceeding with the process of releasing these prisoners, the President’s Secretary Saman Ekanayake had sought the approval of former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga on the advice of the President, and the relevant arrangements were made after obtaining her consent.

Accordingly, the four detainees with connections to the LTTE organization who were detained at the Colombo Magazine Prison were released after their sentence was reduced.

Two prisoners linked to the LTTE are to be released after the cases filed by them in the Court of Appeal are withdrawn and two more LTTE prisoners are to be released soon under the presidential amnesty.

The PMD said among the pardoned prisoners, three had been sentenced to 30 years in prison and had served 22 years. One prisoner had been sentenced to 11 years and had served 14 years, one had been sentenced to 10 years and had also served 14 years, and two prisoners had been sentenced to five years but had served for14 years.

The PMD added that another person who had been sentenced to 19 years in prison and had served 11 years of his sentence so far, was also among those who were pardoned by the President.