{"id":37617,"date":"2015-01-21T22:36:05","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T03:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=37617"},"modified":"2015-01-21T22:39:20","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T03:39:20","slug":"four-star-general-rank-restored-to-sarath-fonseka-after-being-granted-full-pardon-by-president-sirisena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=37617","title":{"rendered":"Four Star General Rank Restored to Sarath Fonseka After Being Granted Full Pardon by President Sirisena"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Zacki Jabbar<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Gen.<\/a>

Gen. Sarath Fonseka<\/p><\/div>\n

In keeping with his election pledge President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday granted a full pardon to former Army Commander and current Democratic Party Leader Sarath Fonseka in terms of the powers vested in him under Section 34 of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

The pardon meant any convictions against General Fonseka by civilian or military courts and ensuing sentences and strictures imposed on him had been removed with immediate effect, entitling him to be restored with his rank of Four Star General, medals, pension and other privileges which he was stripped of in 2010 after being found guilty by an Army tribunal of alleged irregularities in military procurements and sentenced to three years in prison, a spokesman for the President said.
\n
\nLeader of the House and Plantation Industries Minister Lakshman Kirielle, asked if the Presidential pardon meant that Gen. Fonseka would get his civic rights back noted, “General Fonseka now has all the rights that any other citizen of Sri Lanka is entitled to, which means there is no legal impediment to him holding public office again.”<\/p>\n

Presidents Counsel and UNP member of the Western Provincial Council, Srinath Perera said that logically Gen. Fonseka\u2019s civic rights should be restored since he has been given a full Presidential pardon.<\/p>\n

Asked about strong speculation that the ex-Army Chief had pledged his support to Srisena at the January 8, Presidential Poll on condition that if Sirisena became President, he would promote Fonseka to the rank of Field Marshall, Perera observed, “I cannot comment on that aspect of it. But, if General Fonseka is appointed a Field Marshall then he would be able to give directives to the Army. If the speculation is true, fulfilling it would be entirely in the hands of the President as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.”<\/p>\n

Among the other titles Fonseka was stripped of were Rana Wickrama Padakkama, Rana Sura Padakkama, Vishista Seva Vibhushanaya, Uttama Seva Padakkama and Desha Putra Sammanaya.<\/p>\n

A few months after the defeat of the LTTE on May 19, 2009 the former army commander was elevated to the rank of Four Star General and appointed Chief of Defence Staff. He retired shortly thereafter complaining that it was a move to sideline him and unsuccessfully challenged Mahinda Rajapaksa at the January 2010 Presidential Poll. Fonseka was arrested on Feb. 8, 2010 and court-martialled. He was found guilty of corrupt military supply deals and sentenced to three years in prison. After serving more than two years of his term, Fonseka was released on May 21, 2012 due to a sustained campaign by local and foreign civil rights groups and political parties.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Island<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Zacki Jabbar In keeping with his election pledge President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday granted a full pardon to former Army Commander and current Democratic Party Leader Sarath Fonseka in terms of the powers vested in him under Section 34 of the Constitution. The pardon meant any convictions against General Fonseka by civilian or military courts …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Four Star General Rank Restored to Sarath Fonseka After Being Granted Full Pardon by President Sirisena’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37617"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37626,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37617\/revisions\/37626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}