Sri Lanka’s ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was issued a discover by the Supreme Court on November 24 over a presidential pardon granted by him to a former lawmaker of his get together who was convicted in a homicide of a celebration colleague in 2011.
Mr. Rajapaksa, who pardoned Duminda Silva — a former parliamentarian from his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) get together, has been issued a second summons since he left workplace in July this yr.
Mr. Silva who was sentenced to loss of life in 2017 for involvement within the 2011 homicide of a celebration colleague and ex-MP, Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, and 4 others, was freed in June 2021 after Mr. Rajapaksa granted him a presidential pardon.
However, the Supreme Court in May this yr quashed the pardoning and ordered Mr. Silva to be arrested once more.
He is anticipated to look as a respondent earlier than the Supreme Court on December 16 for the listening to of a elementary rights petition filed by Mr. Premachandra’s spouse and daughter.
Similarly, in mid-October, the very best court docket issued a summons to him to look in court docket over the 2011 disappearance of two rights activists Lalith Weeraraj and Kugan Murugananthan from the northern Province.
The disappearances occurred 12 years in the past quickly after the tip of the nation’s lengthy civil struggle when Mr. Rajapaksa was a robust official on the Defence Ministry below the presidency of his elder brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
At the time, he was accused of overseeing abduction squads that whisked away insurgent suspects, crucial journalists, and activists, lots of them by no means to be seen once more.
He has beforehand denied any wrongdoing.
Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 73, was ousted in a well-liked rebellion towards him in July this yr following months of avenue protests that referred to as for his resignation.
He fled to the Maldives in mid-July and introduced his resignation from Singapore.
In early September, he returned to the nation from Thailand.
Source: www.thehindu.com