Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the presidential pardon granted to former MP Duminda Silva by ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was unlawful.

Silva, alongside four others, was convicted in 2016 by the High Court for the 2011 murder of politician Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra. 

All five received the death penalty, a verdict later upheld by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court. 

However, following his election victory in 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa unexpectedly granted a pardon solely to Silva.

Three separate fundamental rights petitions challenging the legality of the pardon were subsequently filed with the Supreme Court. 

The fundamental rights applications were filed by Hirunika Premachandra, her mother Sumana Premachandra, and Former Human Rights Commissioner Ghazali Hussain, PC.

 After careful consideration, the bench, comprising Justices P. Padman Surasena, Gamini Amarasekera, and Arjuna Obeysekera, unanimously concluded that the pardon process was flawed and therefore unlawful.