Colombo, June 28, (dpa/GNA) – Death row prisoners in Sri Lanka have launched a hunger strike campaign demanding their sentences be commuted, officials said on Monday, after a politician from the ruling party serving a sentence for murder was pardoned and released.
More than 200 prisoners are currently involved in the hunger strike. Some have occupied the roof tops of two high security jails in Colombo and an adjoining district for the past four days, prison spokesperson Chandana Ekanayake said.
The protests started after a politician who supports the ruling party and who was convicted to death for killing a rival politician was given a presidential pardon enabling him to leave jail on Thursday.
The politician, Duminda Silva, was a former member of parliament. He was sentenced in 2016 for the murder he committed in 2011.
Sri Lanka currently does not implement the death sentence, even if the sentence is handed down for cases involving murder or drug-trafficking.
The last time Sri Lanka implemented the death sentence was in 1976.
About 509 persons who have been sentenced to death are currently serving jail terms, with some of them in jail for more than 25 years.
The prisoners sentenced to death are demanding that their sentence be commuted, which would make them eligible for an early release from jail.
Sri Lanka reduces jail terms for good behaviour for inmates, but persons serving death sentence are not entitled to the concession.
GNA