Sri Lanka: Sirisena faces massive backlash as he pardons teen's killer

Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena has been subject to heavy criticism following his decision to pardon a death row prisoner, Jude Jayamaha, who murdered a Swedish teenager, Yvonne Johnson, in the year 2005. According to reports, Yvonne was murdered on the stairs of her apartment block and her body was found on the 19th floor where her family was in the capital city of Colombo in the year 2005, after an argument with Jude Jayamaha.

Sirisena had announced in October that he was thinking about granting a pardon to Jude as the killer has exhibited good behavior in the prison and had been jailed over an incident of impatience.

Read: Sri Lanka: Supreme Court Blocks Sirisena's Bid To Resume Hangings

Netizens shocked

Netizens were outraged by the decision taken and that resulted in one person stating that the outgoing President should be investigated and the authorities should find out how much money he pocketed to even consider releasing the convicted killer whereas someone said that all outgoing presidents should be denied all pardon making powers. A Twitterati expressed his shock over the President's decision, tagging the murder as a heinous crime and added that this decision by Sirisena was not acceptable.

Another user said that the President should take the killer's place and added that the only reason behind Jude's release was his well connected and rich family.

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A gruesome murder

During a trial of Jude Jayamaha, the court observed that the victim's head was smashed in 64 different pieces and that led to Jude being awarded a 12-year prison sentence. However, his appeal against the 12-year sentence was rejected and was converted to a death sentence that was upheld by the Sri Lankan supreme court in the year 2014.

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(With inputs from agencies)