Former parliamentarian Hirunika Premachandra, the daughter of slain former politician Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, has filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court.
It is by challenging the legitimacy of the presidential pardon granted to former parliamentarian Duminda Silva.
Through this petition, Hirunika Premachandra, a former Member of Parliament for the Colombo District, also seeks a statement that her fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 12 (1) for equal protection of law have been violated.
Hirunika Premachandra had filed the fundamental rights petition naming the Attorney General, the Commissioner General of Prisons, the Minister of Justice and several others as respondents.
On September 8, 2016, the Colombo High Court sentenced five suspects, including Supervising Member of Parliament of the Ministry of Defense MP Duminda Silva, to death, for the murder of four people, including former parliamentarian Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra on October 8, 2011.
On October 11, 2018, a panel of Supreme Court judges then headed by Chief Justice Priyasath Dep decided to unanimously dismiss the appeals filed by former MP Duminda Silva and two others.
