Former parliamentarian Ramanayake, who was jailed for contempt of court, will be released on a presidential pardon on February 4, Independence Day, sources said.
A number of leading actors and actresses including Kamal Addararachchi had a special discussion in this regard recently with the participation of President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s close associate, millionaire businessman Nissanka Senadhipathi.
According to reports, Ranjan Ramanayake will be released on three conditions.
The first is the acceptance of Harin Fernando’s parliamentary seat. Harin Fernando has stated on several previous occasions that he would resign from his seat and offer his seat to Ranjan Ramanayake if he is released by the President. He also presented it as a challenge to the government. Accordingly, if Ranjan is released on a presidential pardon, Harin Fernando will have to resign. There, the first condition is to get the seat without refusing.
Harin Fernando is currently the most vocal MP in Parliament regarding the Easter attack. His revelations have been a headache for the government for quite some time. Accordingly, the removal of Harin from Parliament through Ranjan’s release is a great victory for the government. This is because, under the privilege of being a Member of Parliament, there are also legal situations in which Harin cannot speak outside like the way he did in the House.
The second condition is that Ranjan does not continue the work that Harin did, even though he came to Parliament from Harin’s seat. It is that Ranjan is not allowed to continue Harin’s activism, which continues to pose enormous challenges to the government, especially with regard to the Easter attacks. Accordingly, the strong challenge posed to the government in Parliament regarding the Easter attack will be completely eradicated without any substitute.
The third condition is to apologize to the court in the second case against Ranjan Ramanayake for contempt of court. In fact, after being convicted in the first case, Ranjan went to jail saying – “මේ ඇස්වල බයක් ගෑවිලාවත් තියෙනවාද මල්ලි ?” – like a hero. This heroism will be completely shattered when apologizing to the court in the second case. What is left after that is just the MP Ranjan Ramanayake.
In this context, the government’s plan is to kill three birds with one stone through Ranjan’s release.