Premalal Jayasekara

Halkedaliya Lekamlage alias Mahawela Lekamlage Premalal Jayasekara (Sinhala: ප්‍රේමලාල් ජයසේකර), also known by his pseudonym Choka Malli (Sinhala: චොකා මල්ලි) (lit. Lil' Choco Brother^{[citation needed]}) is a Sri Lankan convicted murderer, politician, and is a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka^[1] and a former government deputy minister.

On 31 July 2020, he along with two others were sentenced to death over a fatal shooting during the 2015 Sri Lankan presidential election.^[2]

Murder Conviction[]

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][3]

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.^[4] The Attorney General of Sri Lanka Dappula de Livera informed Parliament that as a convicted criminal on death row, Jayasekara was ineligible to hold office as a Member of Parliament.^[5] 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.^[6]

References[]

• "PREMALAL JAYASEKARA". Directory of Members. Parliament of Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 2007-06-21. Retrieved 2010-10-17.

This article about a Sri Lankan politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

• v
• t