Pardon being considered for Royal Park murder convict

A Presidential pardon is being considered for Royal Park murder convict Jude Shramantha Anthony Jayamaha.

Speaking at the National Youth Model United Nations conference held in Colombo yesterday, the President said that he had received a request for a Presidential pardon for Jude Shramantha Jayamaha.

Sharmantha Jayamaha was sentenced to death in the 2005 murder of Swedish national Yvonne Johnson at the Royal Park condominium.

President Sirisena said that Jayamaha was jailed when he was 19 years old and that he committed the murder after he lost his patience over an argument with the victim.

Sirisena said that Jayamaha has now rehabilitated and has also completed a PhD while in prison.

Jayamaha was given the death sentence in 2012 by the Court of Appeal after it revoked an earlier order in the 2005 murder of Swedish national Yvonne Johnson at the Royal Park condominium.

In June 2014 the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence on the convict.

The order in 2012 was issued following an application filed by the Attorney General?s department against the earlier verdict which was a 12 year prison sentence for the suspect given by the High Court in 2006.

A student of the Colombo International School, 19 year old Yvonne Johnson was found brutally raped and murdered at the Royal Park Condominium in the wee hours of 30^th?June 2005, the local media reported at the time.

Police found the body of the victim on the 19th floor of the building, with her clothes ripped off and her possessions strewn around.

Speaking to the media following the 2006 court ruling the family members of the victim had said they will never return to Sri Lanka as they were shocked by the verdict. The victim is the daughter of Swiss national, Roger Johnson and Sri Lankan born Chamalika.

?We will appeal once again. We will fight till justice is achieved,? an angry Roger Johnsson, the father of? Yvonne, was quoted in the media as saying after the 2006 court order.

In the 2006 ruling the accused was convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. (Colombo Gazette)