Former Lanka president quizzed by anti graft commission on pardon

Colombo: An anti-graft commission on Tuesday recorded a statement of former Sri Lanka president Maithripala Sirisena over a presidential pardon given by him to a murder convict.

Officials from the Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) said Sirisena's statement was recorded after he presented himself at the commission's office.

Sirisena, who was the president from 2015 till 2019, had granted a pardon to Jude Shramantha Jayamaha in 2019 -- a few days before resigning from the post of president ahead of the presidential election -- after the Supreme Court had convicted him for the murder of a teenaged friend in 2005.

The anti graft commission, based on a complaint received, wanted to question him on alleged money transactions which resulted the convict being granted a pardon.

Terming as “unconstitutional,” a three-member bench of the Sri Lankan Supreme Court had on June 6 reversed Sirisena's decision of 2019 to grant the presidential pardon to Jayamaha and ordered the former president to pay SLRs 1 million compensation to the parents of the victim and the petitioner in the case.

Jayamaha in 2005 beat to death Yvonne Jonsson, a 19-year-old Swedish woman holidaying in Sri Lanka. He was earlier imprisoned for 12 years but he later appealed to the higher court which rejected his plea and sentenced him to death. This was again reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 2014.

The court also ordered the convict to return to prison to serve his sentence. However, Jayamaha had left the country since being pardoned.

The government has asked for his extradition from Singapore, officials said.

Sirisena didn’t stand for re-election in 2019 when his term ended. He won a parliamentary seat in the 2020 election but opted to stay away from contesting the parliamentary election held two weeks ago.