The petitions filed by Ratnapura District Parliamentarian Premalal Jayasekera and two others challenging their conviction in the Ratnapura High Court were fixed for argument by the Court of Appeal on Wednesday.
They were convicted for committing the murder of an individual following a shooting incident that took place at Kahawatta in 2015 during the Presidential Election.
The two judge bench of the Court of Appeal comprising Justice Nissanka Bandula Karunaratne and Justice R. Gurusinghe fixed the argument for June 16.
The court directed the accused-appellants to file their written submissions on March 22. While the Attorney General was asked to file his objections on April 29.
On July 31, 2020, Premalal Jayasekera and two others were convicted by Ratnapura High Court for committing the murder of Shantha Dodamgoda, while being engaged in decorating an election stage on behalf of then opposition common candidate MaithripalaSirisena. The victim was wounded in the shooting and succumbed to injuries in the hospital.
Through their appeal, three accused-appellants stated that they were seeking the jurisdiction of Court of Appeal to review and set aside their conviction and the death sentence imposed by Ratnapura High Court.
The Court of Appeal had recently issued an order directing the Prison authorities to allow RatnapuraDistrict Parliamentarian Premalal Jayasekera to attend Parliament.
