Conditional presidential pardon for Ranjan Ramanayake

President Ranil Wickremesinghe today (Aug 26) signed the document to grant a conditional pardon to the incarcerated former Member of Parliament Ranjan Ramanayake, the President’s Media Division (PMD) says.

The Head of State has granted a presidential pardon to the former parliamentarian on the condition that he would refrain from making any comments in contempt of the judiciary in the future.

The Secretary to the Ministry of Justice has been tasked with making the necessary arrangements for the release of Ramanayake.

On January 12, 2021, the Supreme Court sentenced Ramanayake to 04 years of rigorous imprisonment over a case filed against a derogatory comment he had made with regard to the judiciary, outside the Temple Trees on August 21, 2017.

He was later handed a sentence of two years rigorous imprisonment suspended for a period of five years over another contempt of court case filed against him.

Submitting an affidavit to the court yesterday (Aug 25), Ramanayake made an official apology for the comments he had made. Deeply reflecting on the statement made by him outside the Temple Trees in August 2017, Ramanayake admitted that his comment was utterly contemptuous of the Chief Justice and the entire judiciary.

In his affidavit, Ramanayake profoundly apologized and sought the forgiveness of the entire judiciary.

Further, Ramanayake also sought forgiveness for the derogatory statement he made outside the Supreme Court premises claiming that he would not withdraw the statement he made on August 21, 2017.

He also gave an assurance that he would never again, in his entire lifetime, make any statement critical or derogatory of the entire judiciary, the PMD said further.