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Agence France-Presse

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe ordered the early release of nearly 1,000 prisoners to mark the island’s main Buddhist holiday, the prisons chief said on Saturday.
The pardons on Vesak Day, which commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, applied only to those convicted of minor offences, said Commissioner-General Thushara Upuldeniya.
“We released these inmates from 28 prisons across the country”, Upuldeniya said of the Friday evening releases. “There were 982 men and six women who walked free”.
The cash-strapped South Asian nation is holding official Vesak celebrations for the first time in five years.
IMF bailout ‘endorsement’ for Sri Lanka economic recovery: analysts
Festivities were cancelled in 2019 after Islamic extremists carried out Easter Sunday suicide bombings that claimed 279 lives at churches and hotels in the capital Colombo.
Official events marking the holiday were then put on hold by the Covid-19 pandemic and last year’s economic crisis, the worst since independence from Britain in 1948.
The island defaulted on its US$46 billion foreign debt in April 2022 – one of a chain of events that led to the ouster of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa – but secured a US$3.0 billion IMF bailout in March this year.

Sri Lanka has declared a week of celebrations to mark Vesak, which fell on Friday, the first full moon of May, and banned the sale of alcohol over the weekend.
The island’s jails are overcrowded. There were nearly 27,000 inmates at the start of May in facilities designed to hold 11,000, according to official data.


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Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka frees a thousand prisoners to mark Buddhist holiday

Buddhist nuns in Colombo, Sri Lanka take part in a traditional ritual on Vesak Day. Photo: Reuters

An illuminated road during Vesak celebrations in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo: EPA-EFE

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Representatives of Sri Lanka Ports Authority, a local civil engineering enterprise, and China Merchants Port Holdings at a signing ceremony of an agreement to jointly build a commercial and logistics hub at Colombo Port. Photo: Xinhua

A container vessel is being offloaded at Colombo Port. Photo: AFP

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Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe is urging parliament to vote for an IMF bailout plan for the cash-strapped,  debt-ridden country. Photo: AFP

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A Sri Lankan soldier stands guard outside St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo on April 27, 2019. Photo: AFP 

Sri Lankans light candles and pray outside St. Anthony’s Church in Colombo on April 30, 2019. Photo: AP

A portrait of Rupika Rosairo’s daughter, depicted as an angel, hangs in a small prayer room at her home. Photo: Handout

Security forces inspect St Anthony’s Church in Sri Lanka after 2019 bombings. Photo: Getty Images

St Sebastian’s Church undergoing repairs in May 2019 after the Easter bombings. Photo: Handout

Sri Lanka secures US$3 billion IMF bailout – now for the difficult debt talks

A vegetable seller holds Sri Lankan bank notes while working at a market in Colombo on Monday. Photo: AFP

A vegetable seller holds Sri Lankan bank notes while working at a market in Colombo on Monday. The nation is grappling with soaring prices, supply shortages and eroded foreign-currency reserves since defaulting on its overseas debt last year. Photo: AFP

News

Asia

Southeast Asia

The pardons on Vesak Day, which commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, apply only to those convicted of minor offences
The cash-strapped nation is holding official celebrations for the first time in five years, and events marking the holiday will last a week


The pardons on Vesak day, which commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, apply only to those convicted of minor offences.


China-Sri Lanka relations

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Religion

Sri Lanka frees a thousand prisoners to mark Buddhist holiday

The pardons on Vesak Day, which commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, apply only to those convicted of minor offences The cash-strapped nation is holding official celebrations for the first time in five years, and events marking the holiday will last a week

The pardons on Vesak Day, which commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, apply only to those convicted of minor offences

The cash-strapped nation is holding official celebrations for the first time in five years, and events marking the holiday will last a week