{"id":150099,"date":"2025-06-07T13:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T20:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=150099"},"modified":"2025-06-07T13:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T20:04:12","slug":"pmd-issues-statement-on-alleged-presidential-pardon-of-prisoner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/06\/07\/pmd-issues-statement-on-alleged-presidential-pardon-of-prisoner\/","title":{"rendered":"PMD issues statement on alleged presidential pardon of prisoner"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Hiru News<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The President\u2019s Media Division (PMD) has issued an official statement highlighting a serious procedural irregularity involving the release of a prisoner from Anuradhapura Prison, who was not approved under the presidential pardon granted for the 2025 Vesak festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the PMD, W.H. Athula Thilakaratne, an inmate serving a sentence for financial fraud, was released despite not being included in the list of prisoners approved by the President for a general pardon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The PMD clarified that under Article 34(1) of the Constitution, the President has the authority to grant pardons to convicted prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Accordingly, a list of prisoners selected by the Prison Superintendents is forwarded to the Ministry of Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The list is examined by the Ministry of Justice and then sent to the Presidential Secretariat. With the approval of the President, those prisoners are granted a general pardon, the PMD stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this instance, the official list\u2014submitted by the Commissioner General of Prisons on May 6, 2025\u2014included 388 names.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the name of the individual imprisoned at Anuradhapura Prison in connection with financial fraud was not included in that list.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This individual was not included in the list of 388 prisoners granted a presidential pardon,\u201d the PMD stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In light of this development, the Presidential Secretariat lodged a formal complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) yesterday (June 6), under the title Release of a Prisoner without Presidential Approval under the Presidential Pardon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The PMD further confirmed that a formal investigation has been launched, and disciplinary measures will be taken against any officials found responsible for the irregular release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Hiru News The President\u2019s Media Division (PMD) has issued an official statement highlighting a serious procedural irregularity involving the release of a prisoner from Anuradhapura Prison, who was not approved under the presidential pardon granted for the 2025 Vesak festival. According to the PMD, W.H. Athula Thilakaratne, an inmate serving a sentence for financial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}