A day after Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris met U.S.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and officials in Washington DC,Sri Lanka announced that President Mahinda Rajapaksa signed therelease papers of the jailed former Army General, Sarath Fonseka. "President Mahinda Rajapaksa signed the papers on the 18thevening and handed over the papers to Chief of Staff GaminiSenerath before leaving for Qatar to enable the release of Mr.Sarath Fonseka. Papers will be sent to the Ministry of Justice onMonday," Bandula Jayasekara, Presidential Spokesman, saidearly on Sunday, putting to rest speculation on the processes thatfollow the Sri Lankan government decision to release the formerArmy Commander. Sri Lanka's executive President has vast powers under therepeatedly-amended Constitution. Part of an Article relates topardoning convicted criminals. Under Article 34 (1), the"President may, in the case of any offender, convicted of anyoffence in any court within the Republic of Sri Lanka (a) grantpardon, either free of subject to lawful conditions; (b) grant anyrespite, either indefinite for such period as the President maythink fit, of the execution of any sentence passed on suchoffender; (c) substitute a less severe form of punishment for anypunishment imposed on such offender; or (d) remit whole or any partof any punishment imposed or of any penalty or forfeiture otherwisedue to the Republic on account of such offence." Speculation on his release date began doing the rounds after The Hindu broke the story on his release , after speaking to the President on the sidelines of a functionheld here last week to launch a book, Gota's War . Mr. Jayasekara stated there was no international pressure torelease the General, who led Sri Lanka to the historic war victoryover the Tamil Tigers in May 2009. But in the meeting between Prof.Peiris and Mike Posner, Assistant Secretary of State, Democracy,Human Rights and Labour, in Washington DC, specific human rightsabuse allegations had come up. The U.S. held that Gen. Fonseka wasa political prisoner and demanded his release. Depending on the length the processing of papers take, Mr. Fonseka,who is now in a hospital where he was shifted from a prison onApril 25, is expected to walk free either on Monday evening orTuesday. The first formality ahead of the release was a Cabinet approval.This came last Thursday. The next day, the Colombo High Courtgranted bail to Mr. Fonseka in one case, relating to harbouringArmy deserters. Mr. Sarath Fonseka, who was appointed Army Commander in 2005 byMr..Rajapakasa, oversaw the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009. He was‘kicked upstairs' and made Chief of Defence Staff in July2009. In November the same year, Mr. Fonseka resigned the positionand decided to contest the polls, a decision that put him in directconfrontation with the more political savvy Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa.Even when most of the diplomatic corps and foreign observers inColombo predicted a Fonseka victory in the Presidential polls, hetrailed Rajapaksa by 17 points in the election. Barely a fortnight after the defeat, he was arrested on February 8,2010 by military police and subjected to a court martial on"military offences." The first court martial, which began in March 2010, ordered that hebe discharged dishonourably in May 2010. The second court martialon Hi-Corp deal resulted in a three-year sentence in September2010. Though he won from Colombo district in April 2010 generalelections, he was unseated from Parliament in October the sameyear. In all, has served more than 2 years in prison and has alsobeen convicted for another 3 years last November. He has appealedagainst convictions in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Fonseka leads the Democratic National Alliance, which has sevenseats in the 225 member House. The next Presidential elections aredue in 2016. Fonseka has a variety of health concerns, includingrespiratory problems, and others, arising from an aborted suicidebomb attack on him. I am an expert from ferrosiliconalloys.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Cast Iron Inoculation , Cast Iron Alloys, Magnesium Ferro Silicon,and more.
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