Sri Lanka prison chief suspended after fraud convict freed

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s government on Monday suspended the country’s prisons chief over the release of a financial fraudster under the cover of an amnesty granted to hundreds of minor offenders.

The cabinet suspended Commissioner-General of Prisons Thushara Upuldeniya as criminal investigators probed the illegal release of fraud convict Athula Thilakaratne, the justice ministry said.

“It was decided to suspend the Commissioner-General until the investigations are concluded,” the ministry said in a statement. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s office ordered a police investigation last week after the release of Thilakaratne.