This archive report was first published on 10 November 2019.
On Saturday, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena granted an unusual amnesty to Jude Jayamaha, a convicted killer, allowing him to walk out of Welikada prison. The move has sparked widespread outrage, particularly among those who knew the victim, Yvonne Jonsson.
Jonsson, a Swedish teenager, was beaten to death in a high-rise apartment in Colombo in 2005 after an argument with Jayamaha. The court had described the attack as brutal, with Jonsson's skull fractured into 64 pieces.
Jayamaha was initially sentenced to 12 years in prison but appealed to a higher court, which rejected his plea and instead sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court reaffirmed the sentence in 2014.
Jonsson's sister, Caroline, had expressed her concerns over Jayamaha's pardon in a Facebook post before the amnesty announcement. She wrote, "He showed and continues to show absolutely no remorse for what he has done. We've worked hard to rebuild our lives and here we are, going into 15 years, still fighting for justice. Unfortunately, we now have to prepare ourselves for the worst possible outcome, the pardon of my sister's murderer."
Many Sri Lankans took to social media to condemn Sirisena's decision, with some speculating that the pardon may have been granted to test the waters ahead of possibly pardoning another high-profile death-row inmate.
President Sirisena is stepping down after Saturday's presidential election, in which he is not a candidate. He announced last month that he was considering a request to grant Jayamaha a pardon.
