The Tamil National Party People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam condemned the Presidential pardon issued to Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake and said that “nothing can be achieved through the Sri Lanka’s judiciary or its internal mechanisms.”

Rathnayake, was sentenced to death for killing eight Tamil Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Mirusuvil, Jaffna on December 2000, after being convicted in June 2015 and had his sentence upheld in April 2019 at Sri Lanka’s supreme court.

Lawyer, human rights advocate and former Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Ambika Satkunanathan, questioned the basis for the presidential pardon of Sunil Rathnayake and the legitimacy of the process, and used the case to underline the challenges Tamil families’ face in holding perpetrators accountable and obtain justice.

A Sinhala Buddhist monk has praised Sri Lanka’s pardon of a soldier who was convicted over the massacre of Tamil civilians, calling it “delightful news”.

Buddhist monk Medille Pannaloka stated that Sri Lanka’s defence secretary Kamal Gunaratne, who is also accused of overseeing war crimes, called him personally to inform him of Staff Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake’s pardon.

The US Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia has condemned Sri Lanka’s pardon of a soldier who was convicted over the massacre of Tamils, calling it “deeply troubling”.

In a tweet on Saturday, Alice Wells went on to state that “justice, accountability, and reconciliation are needed for long-term peace”

The release of Sunil Ratnayake, after he was convicted for the murder of 8 Tamil civilians, has been widely condemned by Tamil political parties and organisations.

Former Chief Minister of Northern Province in Sri Lanka, C.V. Wigneswaran, slammed the Presidential pardon and release of convicted criminal Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake, referring to it as a “political act” rather than made in response in the best interests of the COVID-19 epidemic.

The British government has responded to a letter by Tamil diaspora groups calling on the Foreign Office to investigate alleged war crimes committed against Tamils by British mercenaries in Sri Lanka. The government has recommended referring the allegations to a special war crimes unit within the Metropolitan Police.

Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth Lord Ahmad responded to the letter which was sent shortly following the publication of Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who Got Away with War Crimes by Phil Miller.

The Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) has vehemently condemned the pardoning of a Sri Lankan soldier convicted for massacre of 8 Tamil civilians including a 5-year-old.

“The conviction of Sunil Ratnayake was an exception in Sri Lankan judicial history. It is probably to date the only case where an army soldier was convicted for murder of Tamil civilians during war other than the Krishanthy Kumaraswamy case,” the umbrella body said in a statement on Saturday.

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) has released a statement, in response to Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s decision to pardon Sunil Ratnayake, an army officer convicted of killing 8 Tamil civilians including children, calling for the international community to consider alternative avenues to justice including the invocation of universal jurisdiction.