Duminda Silva arrested by the CID

Former MP Duminda Silva has been arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), in the wake of the Supreme Court suspending the presidential pardon granted to him.

He has been arrested while receiving treatment at the Sri Jayawardenapura Hospital, the police spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa said.

The Supreme Court yesterday issued an interim order suspending the special presidential pardon granted to the former parliamentarian while he was serving a death sentence.

Accordingly, the country’s top court had ordered the CID to arrest Mr. Duminda Silva.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General had been instructed to provide necessary advice and assistance to the CID in this regard while the court also issued a travel ban on the former MP.

On June 24 in 2021, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa granted presidential pardon to several prison inmates including Duminda Silva, in view of the Poson Full Moon Poya Day.

Silva was jailed in September 2016 after the Colombo High Court found him and several others guilty in the murder of former MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra.

Subsequently, fundamental rights petitions were filed by Sumana Premachandra, the wife of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, a former Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) President’s Counsel Gasali Hussain and several others, challenging the special presidential pardon granted to Duminda Silva.

Allowing the hearing of three FR petitions, the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Preethi Padman Surasena, Yasantha Kodagoda and Achala Vengappuli moved to revoke the presidential pardon.

The petitions are to be taken up for hearing on the 01st of September.