Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday pardoned a Tamil rebel who had been convicted on charges of trying to assassinate him over 10 years ago, officials said.
The man, identified as Sivaraja Jenivan, was granted amnesty at a ceremony attended by Sirisena in Colombo to mark the first anniversary of his election.
“Ordered Presidential pardon to a prisoner who was serving time for attempting to assassinate me in 2005,” the president posted on twitter, along with a picture of him with the pardoned man.
Jenivan was arrested in 2006 on suspicion of attempting to kill Sirisena, a senior cabinet minister at the time, as part of a plan by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to eliminate government
politicians.
He was one year into a 10-year jail term, having only been sentenced in 2015.
The LTTE was crushed in a major military offensive that ended in May 2009 and since then no attacks have been blamed on the guerrillas who were known for their trademark suicide bombings.
Sirisena came to power last year on a promise to ensure reconciliation between his majority Sinhalese community and the minority Tamil and Muslim communities.
At least 100,000 people were killed during Sri Lanka’s 37-year ethnic war that ended in 2009.