Halkedaliya Lekamlage alias Mahawela Lekamlage Premalal Jayasekara (
Sinhala: ප්රේමලාල් ජයසේකර), also known by his
pseudonymChoka Malli (
Sinhala: චොකා මල්ලි) is a
Sri Lankan convicted murderer, politician, and is a member of the
Parliament of Sri Lanka[1] and a former government deputy minister.
The lead-up to the
2015 Sri Lankan presidential election was marred by some
violence. On January 05 2015 opposition candidate
Maithripala Sirisena was due to address a rally in the town of
Kahawatta in the
Ratnapura District. Premalal Jayasekara, then a Deputy Minister in the government of incumbent President
Mahinda Rajapaksa, was involved in a shooting incident that fatally wounded a supporter of Sirisena who was decorating the election stage.
After a trial lasting 5 years, the
Ratnapura High Court sentenced Jayasekara and two others to death on 31 July 2020.[2][4] Later they filed petitions with the
Court of Appeal citing that the manner in which the death sentence was imposed was in violation of the law. On 31 March 2022, they were acquitted and released by the Court of Appeal.[5]
2020 parliamentary election
During the
2020 Sri Lankan parliamentary election, Jayasekara won 104,237 preferential votes in the Ratnapura District and was elected to Parliament.[6] The
Attorney General of Sri LankaDappula de Livera informed Parliament that as a convicted criminal on death row, Jayasekara was ineligible to hold office as a Member of Parliament.[7] However, after the
Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka ruled that there was no legal impediment to Jayasekara being sworn in as an MP, he was permitted to attend sittings from prison.[3]
References
^"Premalal Jayasekara, M.P."The Parliament of Sri Lanka. The Parliament of Sri Lanka. Retrieved 29 October 2020.