Special Request from the Committee for Protecting Prisoners' Rights
12-Jun-2025.
The Committee for Protecting Prisoners' Rights states that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake can avoid falling into the same category as former Presidents Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and Maithripala Sirisena, who misused presidential pardons, by taking legal action against all parties involved in the recent incident of presidential pardon misuse.
Investigations by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were initiated following revelations of severe irregularities surrounding the release of W.H. Athula Thilakaratne, who was detained at Anuradhapura Prison and released under a presidential pardon for the 2025 Vesak Festival.
These investigations uncovered instances where prisoners who were not granted presidential pardons were falsely released under the pretense of having received one.
The Committee for Protecting Prisoners' Rights further elaborated on this in a released statement:
Prison officials cannot escape accountability for prisoners who were not granted presidential pardons or who obtained pardons through false pretenses. This is because we have witnessed how these corrupt officials operated within the prison system in the past.
In previous years, numerous allegations were made regarding individuals being admitted to the prison hospital for monetary gain, even when there was no genuine need for hospitalization. The practice of accepting millions in bribes for admission to the prison hospital is still prevalent.
This corruption has intensified to such an extent that mobile phones can be obtained within the highly secure prison environment.
Although many such fraudulent activities were exposed in the 2022 audit report, the previous government's failure to act emboldened officials involved in these schemes. Despite our repeated notifications to the relevant authorities over several years, their inaction has allowed this situation to persist.
Against this backdrop, it has been emphasized that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake can avoid being associated with the misuse of pardons by former Presidents Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and Maithripala Sirisena, only by taking legal action against all parties connected to this incident.
