Two deputies in detention, on charges of murder, officially took office on Thursday in the Parliament of Sri Lanka, on the occasion of the inaugural session of the new assembly, dominated by the coalition of the Rajapksa brothers.
Incarcerated in pre-trial detention, the first deputy Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, a member of a Tamil party allied with that of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, was escorted to the chamber by prison guards. Justice suspects him of being linked to the murder of a parliamentarian during a Christmas midnight mass in 2005.
Another lawmaker, Premalal Jayasekara, elected Sri Lanka Pudujana Party (SLPP) of the Rajapaksa clan, was sentenced to death at first instance for a shooting that claimed the life of a rival political activist in 2015. He appealed against verdict, rendered a few days before the legislative elections of August 5, but remains in detention.
"The justice gave him permission to go to Parliament but he was not present at the time of the inauguration," said an assembly official.
The Rajapaksa, human rights defenders
The alliance led by President Gotabaya Rajapksa and his big brother Mahinda, himself head of state and strongman of the island from 2005 to 2015, won two thirds of the 225 seats in the last Sri Lankan legislative elections. This majority gives them a free hand to amend the Constitution in order to strengthen the prerogatives of the executive.
The previous administration, which ousted the Rajapaksa from power in 2015 thanks to a coalition of opponents, had organized a decentralization of power and limited presidential terms in order to prevent the emergence of a new strongman.
The Rajapaksa, pet peeves of human rights defenders, argue that a return to the concentration of power is necessary for Sri Lanka's development.
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The family enjoys great popularity among the Sinhalese ethnic majority for ending in 2009, at the cost of a gigantic bloodbath, four decades of civil war with the Tamil minority, a conflict that left 100,000 dead. Mahinda was then president, and his brother one of the main officials of the army.