Fonseka now a prisoner in the open

– Former CJ Sarath N. Silva

May 22, 2012, 12:00 pm 

by Samantha illeperuma

Former Chief Justice Sarath Nanda Silva yesterday observed that President Rajapaksa had not granted a full pardon to Gen. Sarath Fonseka.

The presidential pardon had not been backdated to the beginning of his sentence passed by the second military court martial, therefore he had lost his civic rights for seven years, the former Chief Justice said.

Making further observations on the pardon, Silva said when the President exercised his powers to grant a pardon to any prisoner it should not be done as a political act, but done as an act of a State leader.

Sarath Fonseka needed to be pardoned in two cases. They were the High Court conviction in the White Flag case and the second conviction by a military court. He had been fully pardoned from the High Court conviction, but he had not been pardoned from the part of the sentence already served from the second court martial conviction. What he had been pardoned from was the remaining part of the sentence, the ex-CJ said.

As he had not been pardoned from the portion of the sentence he had already served, he was liable to lose his civic rights for the next seven years. Gen. Fonseka had been made a prisoner in the open, he said.