The Department of Prisons has decided not to consider any prisoner who joins strikes standing on the roofs of prisons and causing damage to property, for any pardon granted by the government.
Prison media spokesman Chandana Ekanayake stated that no prisoner who threatens the security of prisons will be given the opportunity to be granted a pardon or relax the sentence.
Inmates at Welikada and Mahara prisons are on a hunger strike demanding that the death penalty be commuted to life imprisonment.
The Department of Prisons said about 25 inmates are currently on the roof of the Welikada Prison.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s decision to pardon former Member of Parliament Duminda Silva, who was sentenced to death in 2016 for the murder of another MP, has triggered the protests form the other death row prisoners.
Meanwhile, four inmates have escaped from a cell in the Kurunegala court premises. Prison media spokesman Chandana Ekanayake stated that one inmate has been arrested.
Courtesy: Colombo Page
