Death row inmates in Sri Lanka protest pardon granted to ex-MP

Inmates go on hunger strike in a prison in Colombo, demanding equal treatment after president’s controversial pardon.

About 150 death row inmates in Sri Lanka have gone on a hunger strike to demand their sentences be commuted after the island nation’s president pardoned a former legislator who had been condemned to death for an election-related killing. Several inmates protested on the roof of a prison in the capital, Colombo, holding up banners demanding equal treatment and bail consideration, the Associated Press reported on Friday. “Grant pardon to us like you did to terrorists and notorious politicians,” one banner said in local script.