Rajapaksa decides to pardon journalist Tissainayagam

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 May 2010, 07:38 GMT]
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa is reported to have decided to pardon and release the senior journalist J.S.Tissainayagan who had been convicted and sentenced to twenty years rigorous imprisonment on 31 August 2009 under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), according to External Affairs Minister G.L.Peiris to media Monday.

G.L. Peiris made the announcement at an event to mark the World Press Freedom day.

The SL minister did not say when the presidential pardon would be announced by Mahinda Rajapaksa, but said the decision to release him had already been taken.

The Colombo High Court allowed Tissainayagam on bail Mr.Tissanayagam on 11 January this year following his appeal against his conviction

Tissainayagam was arrested on March 7, 2008 by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police and had been indicted with several charges with attempting to cause racial or communal disharmony by publishing articles published in the North Eastern Monthly magazine in 2006 and 2007. He was sentenced to twenty years R.I. by the Colombo High Court on being found guilty for arousing communal feeling by his articles.