Former President Maithripala Sirisena recorded a two-hour statement yesterday (November 26) with the Bribery Commission regarding the controversial presidential pardon granted in 2019 to Jude Shramantha Jayamaha, convicted of the Royal Park murder.
The Bribery Commission summoned Sirisena following a complaint filed in 2022 by Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Executive Committee Member Montague Sarachchandra. The complaint alleged that Sirisena or former MP Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera might have accepted a bribe to issue the pardon.
Jayamaha had been sentenced to death for the 2005 murder of Yvonne Jonsson at the Royal Park apartments. His pardon was quashed by the Supreme Court in June this year, which ruled it unconstitutional.
Further investigations into the bribery allegations are ongoing.
