The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Environment to appoint  M. M. D. J. Senarathne, who is the senior most officer in Grade I of Sri Lanka Scientific Service se

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has appointed Air Chief Marshal Kolitha A. Gunathilake (Retd.) as the new Chancellor of General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University.

The letter of appointment was presented to Air Chief Marshal Kolitha A. Gunathilake (Retd.) by Secretary to the President Dr Nandika Sanath Kumanayake at the Presidential Secretariat on Monday (05) afternoon.

Air Chief Marshal Kolitha A. Gunathilake(Retd.) has served as Commander of the Sri Lanka Air Force and as Chief of Defence Staff.

(PMD)

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The government is coming under pressure from civil society organisations to formulate a clear ‘mechanism’ to deal with requests for presidential pardons.

Representing civil society organisations, Gamini Viyangoda yesterday flayed the NPP government for the delay in taking action against Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, after the Supreme Court declared the 2019 presidential pardon granted to him by President Maithripala Sirisena null and void. He said successive Presidents had abused their executive power to release convicted persons from prison.

Purawesi Balaya activist Viyangoda pointed out that the Supreme Court ruled that President Sirisena had acted arbitrarily and failed to independently consider the relevant materials before exercising his executive power.

The Court of Appeal, in August 2018, sentenced Gnanasara Thera, General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), to six years rigorous imprisonment for contempt of court over his conduct during proceedings concerning missing journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda. Viyangoda said that those who had been affected by the monk’s conduct have the right to know on what basis the President released him, in May 2019.

The Court of Appeal yesterday (05) ordered the relevant authorities to enforce the remaining period of imprisonment imposed on the Thera.

Gnanasara Thera, who had been subject to an open warrant for his arrest, was produced before the Court of Appeal, today, by prison officials.

Having considered the submissions made before it, the Court of Appeal directed the Commissioner General of Prisons to take the necessary steps to enforce the remaining period of the sentence imposed on Gnanasara Thera. Police on Saturday (03) apprehended the monk at a forest monastery in Kalutara. The Colombo Magistrate’s Court on Sunday (04) ordered the Thera to be remanded in custody till Monday.

Appearing for Gnanasara Thera, Attorney-at-Law Iresh Seneviratne, together with Attorney-at-Law Pasan Karunaratne, told the court yesterday that his client had been experiencing severe mental distress and had therefore gone to an ‘Aranya Senasanaya’, where he had been staying.

Viyangoda said that examination of presidential pardons, executed over the years, would reveal how successive leaders exploited the executive power to appease their own. Responding to The Island queries, Viyangoda said that Sirisena, in Sept. 2019, just two months before the presidential election, granted Jude Shramantha Jayamaha a Presidential pardon.

Jude Shramantha Jayamaha was sentenced to 12 years by the High Court, but the Court of Appeal revised that sentence to death, in July 2012, which the Supreme Court later upheld. Viyangoda said that though the Supreme Court, in June 2024, declared that the particular Presidential action was illegal and arbitrary, law enoforcement authorities were yet to take tangible measures to enforce the court directive.

Viyangoda stressed that no President should exercise the right to pardon a convicted on his or her own without following laid out procedures. According to him, Sirisena appeared to have simply ordered the monk, and the convicted murderer, released in response to appeals received by him. A comprehensive investigation could identify those who had been involved in these wrongdoings.