Reimburse the petitioner with Rs. 1 million.
The Supreme Court Thursday ordered the previous President, Maithripala Sirisena, to pay the petitioner in the Fundamental Rights petition challenging previous President Sirisena’s decision to pardon Royal Park murder suspect Don Shamantha Jude Anthony Jayamaha.
The petitioner, the Women and Media Collective organization was ordered by the Court to retain the money in trust and use it in the best interests of female crime victims. The funds must be given within one month of the ruling.
Former President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to pardon Royal Park murder suspect Don Shamantha Jude Anthony Jayamaha is arbitrary and unconstitutional, the Supreme Court said yesterday in another historic ruling on the extent of the Pardon given by the executive President.
As such, the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, which consists of Justices S. Thurairaja, Yasantha Kodagoda, and Janak de Silva, ruled to set aside two presidential pardons that Shamantha Jude Anthony Jayamaha received for violating the Constitutional rules.
The Supreme Court ruled that when granting the Respondent listed above Presidential Pardon, former President Maithripala Sirisena had violated the petitioner’s Fundamental Rights under Article 12(1) of the constitution.
The Women & Media Collective group has submitted this Fundamental Rights petition contesting the legitimacy of former President Sirisena’s decision to pardon the murderer of Royal Park.
The Supreme Court pointed out that before giving Respondent Jayamaha the first and second pardons, former President Sirisena had yet to follow the procedural criteria (1) through (4) listed above as required by the Proviso to Article 34(1) of the Constitution.
In May 2016, Jude Jayamaha’s death sentence was reduced to life in prison by a Presidential Pardon (1st Pardon), allegedly in response to suggestions given by Dr Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC, the then Minister of Justice, according to the ruling.
Less than ten years after the Court of Appeal sentenced the convict to death, in November 2019, former President Sirisena, in the last weeks of his administration, granted the convict the Presidential Pardon (2nd Pardon) for allegedly using his Article 34 of the Constitution powers. The Respondent was so let out of jail on November 8, 2019.
The Attorney General charged Jude Anthony Jayamaha before the High Court with killing Yvonne Jonsson, who was 19 years old at the time, on or around July 1, 2005, in violation of Section 294 of the Penal Code and punished by Section 296 of the same. The corpse of Yvonne, who had lived in the Royal Park Apartment Complex with her family, was found on July 1, 2005, lying in a pool of her blood on the 19th-floor stairwell.
A single High Court judge convicted Jude Anthony Jayamaha without a jury. The offender was found guilty and given a 12-year sentence of harsh imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 300,000 by the High Court judge in the July 28, 2006 ruling.
The Attorney General had then appealed to the Court of Appeal, arguing that the penalty was inadequate and that the finding of culpable homicide not qualifying as murder should be overturned and replaced with a murder conviction and death sentence.
The petitioner said that although has the constitutional authority to pardon, the President is not able to do so in flagrant violation of the Rule of Law, all ideas of justice, equity, and reason, as well as in careless disregard of the sensitivity and sensibilities of the situation, including the existence of an enraged family that is still trying to come to terms with the horrific murder of Yvonne Jonsson, whose life was taken away from her at a very young age by the accused.
Invoking Article 12(1), which guarantees equality and equal protection of the law, the petitioner argues that there has been a flagrant violation of the Fundamental Rights of the petitioners, the citizens and people of Sri Lanka, and the family of Yvonne Jonsson.
Rukshan Senadheera counselled the petitioner, and Sanjeeva Jayawardena, the President’s counsel, represented the victims. Romesh de Silva, the President’s counsellor, represented the victims. The previous President, Maithripala Sirisena, appeared via Faizer Mustapha PC. Saliya Peiris PC organized a bar organization to promote Sri Lanka’s appearance. Nerin Pulle, an additional solicitor general, appeared for the Attorney General.
