Hours after a former Sri Lankan MP, sentenced to life for the murder of another lawmaker, was released on a presidential pardon, the US envoy to Colombo on Thursday said the incident undermined the country’s rule of law. Duminda Silva was set free from the Welikada Prison after he received a pardon from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

US Ambassador Alaina B Teplitz tweeted that the presidential pardon of Duminda Silva was undermining the island nation’s rule of law.

“The Pardon of Duminda Silva, whose conviction the Supreme Court upheld in 2018, undermines rule of law,” Teplitz tweeted in what was seen as an unusual diplomatic move of openly criticizing a host country's actions. 

However, she welcomed the early release of prisoners held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

"We welcome the early release of PTA prisoners, but the pardon of Duminda Silva, whose conviction the Supreme Court upheld in 2018, undermines rule of law. Accountability and equal access to justice are fundamental to the UN SDGs to which the GoSL has committed," she tweeted.

The former parliamentarian was in jail since 2016 after the Colombo High Court found him guilty for the murder of former MP Bharatha Premachandra and gave him a life sentence.

Meanwhile, after Duminda Silva’s release, several Mahara and Welikada prison inmates who have been sentenced to death went on a hunger strike.

Prisons spokesman Chandana Ekanayake said that the inmates are requesting that the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment, Daily Mirror reported.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BAS) has requested Rajapaksa to make the public aware whether the due procedure was followed when granting pardon to Duminda Silva.

(SAM)