Former Member of Parliament Hirunika Premachandra, the daughter of the late Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, has filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court against the Presidential pardon for Duminda Silva, who was sentenced to death for the murder of her father.
Ms Premachandra requests the Supreme Court to declare that granting a presidential pardon to Duminda Silva is unconstitutional.
Therefore, Hirunika Premachandra has requested the Supreme Court to nullify the President’s order granting pardon to former Parliamentarian Duminda Silva who was sentenced to death.
The Attorney General for the President, Minister of Justice Ali Sabry and the Attorney General have been named as respondents in the petition.
Ms. Premachandra pointed out that Defendant Duminda Silva was convicted and sentenced to death by a two-thirds majority of the three-judge panel of the Colombo High Court for the shooting death of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, a trade union adviser to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The death sentence was later upheld by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, but the convicted was released on June 24 under a presidential pardon.
Petitioner Hirunika Premachandra has stated in her petition that the President has taken steps to grant such a pardon without following the provisions of the Constitution.
The petitioner seeks the court to declare the release of the respondent Duminda Silva under a presidential pardon as unconstitutional, to nullify the Presidential pardon order and to summon the relevant documents to hold a hearing on the pardon of Duminda Silva.
