The document granting conditional presidential pardon to former parliamentarian Ranjan Ramanayake was submitted to the prison officials a short while ago.
 
It was handed over by the Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, Wasantha Perera.

Minister of Justice, Wijeyadasa Rajapakse also participated in this occasion.

Earlier today, the President’s Media Division (PMD) stated that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has signed the document to grant a conditional pardon to the former MP, who was sentenced to 04 years of rigorous imprisonment last year over a case filed against a derogatory comment he had made on the judiciary, outside the Temple Trees on August 21, 2017.

The Head of State has granted a presidential pardon to Ramanayake on the condition that he would refrain from making any comments in contempt of the judiciary in the future.

Submitting an affidavit to the court yesterday (Aug 25), Ramanayake made an official apology for the comments he had made. Deeply reflecting on the statement made by him outside the Temple Trees in August 2017, Ramanayake admitted that his comment was utterly contemptuous of the Chief Justice and the entire judiciary.

In his affidavit, Ramanayake profoundly apologized and sought the forgiveness of the entire judiciary.

Further, Ramanayake also sought forgiveness for the derogatory statement he made outside the Supreme Court premises claiming that he would not withdraw the statement he made on August 21, 2017.

He also gave an assurance that he would never again, in his entire lifetime, make any statement critical or derogatory of the entire judiciary, the PMD said further.