by
Meera Srinivasan
A day after Sri Lankan Deputy Minister Prabha Ganesan announced that President Mahinda Rajapaksa was ready to pardon the five Indian fishermen facing death penalty, presidential spokesperson Mohan Samaranayake on Wednesday told The Hindu: “Until now, no decision has been taken to that effect.”
Asked why Mr. Ganesan made an announcement to the contrary, sources close to the President’s office said Mr. Rajapaksa only spoke of possibly commuting the death sentence to life.
On Tuesday, an appeal was filed against the Colombo High Court’s sentence awarding death to the Indian fishermen, and three Sri Lankans, for alleged drug trafficking. In a late evening development on Tuesday, Mr. Ganesan — who met the President to offer his support in the coming elections — told the media that the President was ready to pardon the fishermen if India did not go ahead with the court appeal.
Mr. Ganesan on Tuesday also told the Indian High Commission about the pardon offer, but there has apparently been no official word on it from the President’s office.
In New Delhi, government sources told PTI: “The government has been insisting on the immediate and unconditional release of its fishermen who have been sentenced to death by the Sri Lankan court. And any avenue which enables that will be pursued.” They said that the appeal would not be withdrawn.
It is learnt from official sources in New Delhi that India went ahead with the court appeal only after making the “best efforts” for a full presidential pardon. New Delhi has raised the issue with Colombo at the highest level, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to take up the matter with Mr. Rajapaksa when the leaders meet in Nepal this month on the sidelines of the SAARC summit.
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Rajapaksa ready to pardon fishermen
By
Meera Srinivasan
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is ready to pardon the five Indian fishermen sentenced to death in Sri Lanka if the Indian High Commission in Colombo does not proceed with an appeal against the sentence, Sri Lankan Minister Prabha Ganesan told The Hindu on Tuesday.
“The President said he could pardon and release the fishermen in two or three days, but a court appeal would drag the case up to six months,” Mr. Ganesan, who met the President to pledge support in the upcoming elections, said.
Mr. Rajapaksa, the MP said, wanted him to convey this decision to the High Commission. When contacted, officials at the High Commission confirmed having received the call from Mr. Ganesan, Deputy Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology. The officials said they would decide the next step on Wednesday.
The sudden development came on a day when an appeal was filed against the death sentence in the Colombo High Court.
Mr. Ganesan said President Rajapaksa had told him he had already discussed the pardon with Mr. Modi and that the High Commission was “unnecessarily spending huge sums of money on the appeal.”
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Appeal filed in Colombo High Court
by
Meera Srinivasan
An appeal was filed on Tuesday in the Colombo High Court on behalf of the five Indian fishermen who were recently sentenced to death for alleged drug trafficking.
Senior Lawyer S. Anil Silva told The Hindu that a brief would be prepared to be sent to the Court of Appeal, and that the Court would give a date for hearing the case.
The appeal was to be filed on Monday, but the Indian High Commission wanted to have a look at it. “They saw it and approved it, so filed the appeal today,” Mr. Silva said.
New Delhi is said to be pursuing the case through legal and diplomatic channels at the highest level.
On Sunday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed possible options in the case of the five Indian fishermen who, along with three Sri Lankan fishermen, were on October 30 sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court.
They were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on November 28, 2011 near Delft Island off Jaffna peninsula on charges of drug peddling.
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India pushes presidential pardon for fishermen
by
Meera Srinivasan
India is making a strong diplomatic push for a presidential pardon of the five Indian fishermen who were recently sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court, The Hindu has learnt.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday and their talks “centred on the fishermen’s sentence,” sources in the President’s office said on Monday.
Sri Lanka is more inclined to consider a commutation of the sentence to enable the transfer of the five men to serve out a life sentence in an Indian jail. But Sri Lanka has not made a final decision either way, and the sources said a decision would be unlikely before the January elections.
The issue of drug smuggling and the government’s inability to curb is high on the agenda of Jathika Hela Urumaya, a party of Buddhist monks allied to the ruling alliance.
Courtesy:The Hindu