COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s top court on Jan 17 revoked a presidential pardon for a former lawmaker convicted of murdering his political rival in a public shoot-out, and ordered him to return to prison for life.

The judges ruled that former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa did not follow due process when he ordered the release of close associate Duminda Silva for murdering a political rival and three others.

“The court ordered the setting aside of the June 2021 pardon for Duminda Silva and ordered the prison chief to take him back to jail,” a court official said.

Silva was convicted of murder after a shoot-out in the capital Colombo between rival factions of Mr Rajapaksa’s party in 2011, while he was a Member of Parliament.

Former lawmaker Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and three of his supporters were killed in the gunfight by Silva and his bodyguards.

Silva was made a top government official in charge of housing soon after his release from jail, which drew international outrage.

His pardon was challenged in the courts by relatives of the victim and he was asked to return to prison pending a verdict, but instead remained at a privately run hospital, claiming illness.

Mr Rajapaksa, whose family has dominated Sri Lanka’s politics for much of the past two decades, was ousted by protesters who stormed his home during the island nation’s unprecedented economic crisis in 2022.

The former leader was also criticised for the 2020 pardon of an army sergeant sentenced to death for slitting the throats of Tamil civilians, including four children, during the island’s decades-long civil war. AFP