150 Death-row Inmates Start Hunger Strike in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, SRI LANKA - About 150 death-row inmates in Sri Lanka began a hunger strike to demand their sentences be commuted, prison officials said, after the nation's president pardoned a former lawmaker who had been condemned for an election-related killing.

The lawmaker's surprise release Thursday after he was pardoned by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has drawn widespread criticism, including from the U.N. human rights office and the U.S. ambassador in Sri Lanka. Duminda Silva is widely seen as a favorite of Sri Lanka's ruling Rajapaksa family and had been serving a death sentence over the killing of a rival lawmaker from his own party in an election-related attack about 10 years ago. About 150 inmates sentenced to death were striking, demanding their sentences be commuted to life terms, prison spokesman Chandana Ekanayake said Friday.