The UN and human rights groups have criticized Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s decision to pardon a convicted murderer, warning it undermines the rule of law. Former MP Duminda Silva was sentenced to death together with four others in 2016 for shooting dead a rival politician and three of his supporters in 2011. Mr. Silva, who was a political ally of Mr. Rajapaksa, is among 94 prisoners to incline a presidential pardon. Rights activists have reacted angrily. “It shows complete disdain on the part of the manager for the rule of law, for the legal process, and for public accountability,” Ambika Satkunanathan, a personality’s rights lawyer based in Colombo told the BBC. Mr. Rajapaksa came to power on a Sinhala nationalist campaign in November 2019. He was the powerful defense secretary when his elder brother, Mahinda, was president from 2005 to 2015. Among those released included 16 people from the minority Tamil community accused of links with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. The group was vanquished in very bloody warfare that resulted in 2009. Some are held for over a decade under the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). Colombo-based diplomats and rights activists have welcomed the first release of these held under the anti-terrorism law, which activists describe as draconian. The UN and therefore the US is pressing the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka for accountability for alleged war crimes committed during the nearly three-decade-old war with the Tamil rebels and to release those held under the PTA. The Sri Lankan government has consistently denied law-breaking accusations. Sri Lankan presidents have a history of pardoning those convicted. In March 2020, within months of coming to power, President Rajapaksa pardoned soldier Sunil Ratnayake who had been sentenced to death for killing eight Tamil civilians, including a five-year-old and two teenagers, within the village of Mirusuvil in the northern Jaffna region in 2000. It was one among the few convictions from the warfare era, and therefore the UN said the pardon was “an affront to victims”. Duminda Silva was found guilty with four others of shooting dead Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and three of his supporters during local elections in Colombo in 2011. the 2 men were both members of the then governing party. the decision was later upheld by the country’s Supreme Court in 2018. “Sri Lanka has an accountability problem. Even within the few cases where criminal accountability has been achieved, we see the outcomes undermined by this kind of pardon,” Rory Mungoven, Asia-Pacific chief at the Office of the UN diplomatist for Human Rights told the BBC. “It isn’t just in reference to human rights cases; this relates to the functioning of the criminal justice system for Sri Lanka as an entire. it’s a matter of concern for all Sri Lankans when the rule of law and judicial process are undermined during this way.” When contacted, the Sri Lankan president’s office didn’t comment further on the pardoning of Mr. Silva. The release triggered a wave of anger on social media inland. Hirunika Premachandra, the daughter of the murdered politician, told the BBC: “We fought an extended legal battle to bring those answerable for my father’s death to justice. Now the president has given a pardon. How can people trust the judicature now? We are now worried about our security. “In this country, we are now being treated like slaves. I’ve got written to the president (Mr. Rajapaksa) saying he’s dragging us to hell,” Ms. Premachandra, also a former MP, said. While convicted murderers are pardoned, activists show that others, like human rights lawyer Hejaz Hizbullah, are languishing in jail for months. The former director of the Criminal Investigation Department of the country police, Shani Abeysekara, also spent months in jail. Mr. Abeysekara was detained for about 10 months facing accusations that include falsely implicating a fellow officer, who was convicted of murder. He also headed the investigation into Duminda Silva’s crime that led to his sentencing in 2016 and other alleged rights abuses during the previous Rajapaksa regime. One of the well-known cases he was following was the disappearance of a political cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda, who left home never to return in early 2010. Mr. Ekneligoda was a trenchant critic of the Rajapaksas. Mr. Hizbullah has been in prison for quite a year under the PTA anti-terrorism law for alleged involvement in Islamic radicalization. “This is an absolute lie and that we are determined to prove his innocence in court,” one in every one of his lawyers said. The European Parliament earlier this month passed a resolution expressing concerns over Sri Lanka’s human rights violations. The resolution also urged the ECU Commission to suspend duty-free access to Sri Lankan goods (known as GSP Plus). The suspension of duty-free access will hit many numerous dollars’ worth of Sri Lankan exports to the EU, particularly ready-to-wear clothes. this can be an enormous setback as land is already facing a serious economic challenge because of repeated coronavirus lockdowns. With the West toughening its stance on Ceylon over its rights violations over the years, Colombo has firmly moved into the Chinese sphere of influence. That strategic move, as experts observe, has emboldened its leaders and therefore the rule of law has become the casualty.
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