Release Ranjan now

There are several cases pending in the Supreme Court concerning presidential pardons granted to convicted criminals. In June this year the Supreme Court decided to suspend the Presidential pardon granted to former Parliamentarian Duminda Silva. Two more controversial pardons are also being challenged at this time. 

The pardon granted by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2020 to Sargent Sunil Ratnayake, who was on death row for the murder of eight Tamil civilians, including three children and the pardon granted by President Maithripala Sirisena two weeks before the end of his tenure in 2019 to Shramantha Jude Anthony Jayamaha, who was sentenced to death in the Royal Park Murder case are under judicial review. All these individuals were convicted in a High Court and their sentencing was held in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The pardons were therefore an arbitrary action taken by the head of state which is not based on judicial principles but on personal and financial interest.

The sentencing of former Member of Parliament Ranjan Ramanayake to prison is a different matter. It is in fact a travesty of justice and a clear example of judicial overreach and abuse of power by the courts. Ramanayake, is languishing in court for the supposed crime of contempt of court, for a statement he made in 2017 while an elected Member of Parliament that most judges in Sri Lanka were corrupt. He was judged by the same judiciary he accused of being corrupt and had no options of appealing the sentence since he was convicted by the Supreme Court rather than a lower court. In the absence of contempt of court laws passed by the legislature, Sri Lanka has the absurd situation of the Supreme Court being the sole authority on determining the crime and sentencing, on a matter that clearly affects them personally.

The power to pardon is granted to the Executive exactly for instances as this where it is meant to work as a ‘check’ on the powers of the Judiciary, since it would provide for one final means of rectifying any miscarriages of justice. Most democracies, including those in our region, have evolved from archaic notions of contempt of court to allow for a robust democratic discourse which includes the criticism and accountability of the judiciary. 

As protesters across the country are having a moment of reckoning, identifying the many flaws of the State and the structure of governance it is also time to address the corruption, inefficiency, and the abysmal failures of the Sri Lankan judicial system which has not served the greater interest of its people. The countless number of criminal and corruption cases, especially concerning the Rajapaksa family and their cronies have been dismissed in the last two years alone for numerous technical reasons. At least 100,000 Sri Lankan citizens have been subjected to extra judicial killings and enforced disappearance in the last 50 years and there are hardly 10 instances in which anyone has been held accountable for these crimes. 

Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe is well within his powers to grant a pardon to former MP Ranjan Ramanayake. It should be done not as some political manoeuvre or as a means of gaining mileage, but because the persecution of the MP by the judiciary was itself a wrongful deed. That is a wrong that must be corrected and the Parliament must expeditiously pass laws that formally determine the parameters of contempt of court rather than leaving the Court to be the sole determiner of that crime. Releasing former MP Ramanayake should be a priority sans political preconditions.