<p>President Maithripala Sirisena said a group of leading monks, including Venerable Athuraliye Rathana Thero, had requested clemency for the convicted murderer of Yvonne Jonsson.</p> <p>The Colombo Gazette reported that the President’s media division statement said that many religious leaders, former Supreme Court judges, lawyers, civil society leaders and youth leaders had made appealed to the President, recommending a Presidential pardon to the murderer, Jude Jayamaha, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2005.</p>

Officials from the Royal British Navy visited a Sri Lankan military base in Trincomalee last month, where they met with navy officials and masked Sri Lankan soldiers.

Commodore Simon Huntington from the British navy and Defence Attaché to the British High Commission in Sri Lanka Colonel David Ausman were taken on a tour of the Sri Lankan navy base, and shown a military demonstration by Sri Lankan troops.

<p>Lawyers expressed concern that the 12 people&nbsp;charged for alleged ‘LTTE links’ may not get a fair trial.</p> <p>Speaking to Malaysiakini, lawyer New Sin Yew said, “When someone is charged for terrorism-related offences, their criminal trial is governed by SOSMA, which is different from a normal criminal trial.’</p> <p>He added that SOSMA takes away many safeguards for a fair trial under the Criminal Procedure Code and the Evidence Act, therefore favouring the prosecution.</p>

Celebrations were held in Jaffna this morning as the first commercial international flight to Palaly, landed from Tamil Nadu.

In the lead up to the Sri Lankan Presidential election 16 November, both Sinhala and Tamil political commentators have quipped that this election is a clear cut choice between “the lesser of two evils” and have insisted on drawing parallels to the 2015 and 2005 elections...

A decade on since the end of the armed conflict there has been “no accountability for war crimes and other abuses” said Human Rights Watch, in an appeal to Sri Lanka’s next president on Monday.

“Sri Lanka’s presidential election is certain to have important implications for human rights in the country, including justice for wartime violations,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Whoever is elected president will be under domestic and international scrutiny to ensure that Sri Lanka meets its human rights obligations.”

<p>The Commonwealth is deploying a team to monitor the presidential election in Sri Lanka.&nbsp;</p> <p>The Commonwealth Observer Group will judge whether the election has been conducted in line with Sri Lanka’s election-related legislation as well as relevant regional, Commonwealth and international commitments.</p> <p>The ten member team will assess all factors affecting the credibility of the electoral process by considering the the pre-electoral environment, the voting process, counting and tabulation procedures, and the result announcement.</p>

Sri Lanka’s white van squads abducted, tortured and murdered victims before feeding their bodies to crocodiles, admitted a man who was supposedly a driver for the squads under the previous government. 

In a dramatic press conference in Colombo on Sunday, Anthony Fernando was introduced by Sri Lanka’s health minister as white van driver who had personally witnessed kidnappings and torture.

Commemorating 13 years since the murder of Tamil parliamentarian Nadaraja Raviraj, remembrance events were held in Jaffna and Vavuniya on Sunday.

Tamil families of the disappeared demonstrated in Mullaitivu on Sunday as former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was in town for a rally in support of his brother Gotabaya’s presidential bid.