SC orders Maithripala to pay Rs.1 M to petitioner

June 06 (Daily Mirror) - The Supreme Court today ordered former President Maithripala Sirisena to pay Rs. 1 million to the petitioner in the Fundamental Rights petition filed challenging former President Sirisena's decision to grant a Presidential pardon to Royal Park murder convict Don Shamantha Jude Anthony Jayamaha.

The Court held that the petitioner, Women & Media Collective organization should hold such money in trust and spend it for the purposes that are in the best interests of female victims of crime and this sum of money should be paid within one month of this judgement.

In another landmark judgement pertaining to the scope of the pardon granted by the executive President, the Supreme Court yesterday ruled that former President Maithripala Sirisena's decision to grant a Presidential pardon to Royal Park murder convict Don Shamantha Jude Anthony Jayamaha is arbitrary and not valid in law.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court three-judge-bench comprising Justices S. Thurairaja, Yasantha Kodagoda and Janak de Silva ordered to set aside two Presidential pardons granted to Shamantha Jude Anthony Jayamaha for not following the Constitutional provisions.

The Supreme Court declared that former President Maithripala Sirisena violated the Fundamental Rights of the petitioner under Article 12(1) of the constitution while granting Presidential pardon to the above mentioned respondent.

The Women & Media Collective organization had filed this Fundamental Rights petition challenging the legality of former President Sirisena’s decision to grant Presidential pardon to the Royal Park murder convict.

The Supreme Court observed that former President Sirisena has failed to comply with the procedural requirements (1) to (4) enumerated above as required by the Proviso to Article 34(1) of the Constitution before granting the 1st and 2nd pardons to the respondent Jayamaha.

According to the judgement, in May 2016, the sentence of death imposed upon Jude Jayamaha was commuted to one of life imprisonment by a Presidential Pardon (1st Pardon), purportedly in pursuance of the recommendations made by the then Minister of Justice, Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC.

In November 2019, less than a decade into the sentence of death imposed upon the convict by the Court of Appeal, former President Sirisena, in the final weeks of his presidency, granted the Presidential Pardon (2nd Pardon) to the convict purportedly exercising his powers under Article 34 of the Constitution. As a result, the Respondent was released from prison on 8th, November 2019.

Jude Anthony Jayamaha was indicted before the High Court by the Attorney General for committing the murder of Yvonne Jonsson (who was 19 years of age at the time), on or about 01.07.2005 in terms of Section 294 of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 296 of the Penal Code. On 1st July 2005, the body of Yvonne was discovered, lying in a pool of her own blood, on the 19th floor stairway of the Royal Park Apartment Complex, where her family had made home.

Jude Anthony Jayamaha was tried before a single judge of the High Court sitting without a jury. By the judgement dated 28.07.2006, the High Court judge pronounced a finding of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, thereby convicting the accused and sentencing him to a term of 12 years of rigorous imprisonment in conjunction with a fine of Rs. 300,000.

Subsequently, the Attorney General had filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal on the basis of the inadequacy of the sentence, as well as to have the finding of culpable homicide not amounting to murder set aside and converted to one of murder and sentenced to death.

The petitioner stated that President, though vested with the Constitutional power to grant a pardon, does not have the freedom to do so in gross violation of the Rule of Law, as well as all notions of justice, equity and rationality, as well as in reckless disregard of the sensibilities and sensitivities of the matter, including the existence of an aggrieved family, which is still to come to terms with the gruesome murder of Yvonne Jonsson, whose life was snuffed out at a very young age at the hands of the accused.

The Petitioner pleads that there has been a gross violation of the Fundamental Rights of the Petitioners as well as the citizens and people of Sri Lanka, as well as of the family of Yvonne Jonsson, amounting to a violation of Article 12(1), in which there is a guarantee of equality and equal protection of the law.

President's Counsel Sanjeeva Jayawardena with Counsel Rukshan Senadheera appeared for the petitioner. Romesh De Silva PC with Shanaka Cooray and Dinuk Kiriella appeared for the 9th and 10 Respondent. Faizer Mustapha PC appeared for former President Maithripala Sirisena. Saliya Peiris PC appeared for the Bar Association of Sri Lanka. Additional Solicitor General Nerin Pulle appeared for the Attorney General.