The Supreme Court has ordered former State Minister Premalal Jayasekara to appear before it on 21 October 2026 and has imposed a ban on his leaving the country, Ada Derana reported late on Friday.
Jayasekara was sentenced to death, along with two others, by the Ratnapura High Court, and was subsequently acquitted by the Court of Appeal. The order made on Friday follows an appeal against that acquittal, which Ada Derana attributes to “the plaintiff.”
What the appeal is asking for
Ada Derana’s report on Friday runs to two sentences and does not set out what is at stake. The court file explains it.
The Supreme Court granted leave to hear the appeal on 31 July 2025, when a three-judge bench of Justices Janak de Silva, Priyantha Fernando and Sampath Abeykoon admitted a petition brought by the aggrieved party in the case, Ada Derana reported at the time. The three men had been sentenced to death over the killing of a man at a political rally in Kahawatta held by then-presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena during the 2015 presidential election period.
The petition argues that the Court of Appeal’s decision to acquit and release the three was contrary to law. It asks the Supreme Court to invalidate the acquittal and reinstate the death sentence imposed by the High Court.
That is what makes Friday’s travel ban more than procedural: the proceeding Jayasekara has been ordered to attend on 21 October is one that could, if it succeeds, restore a capital sentence against him.
When leave was granted in July 2025, the hearing was put off to 13 February 2026. No outlet has reported what happened on that date, and Friday’s order is the first development in the appeal to surface publicly since.
A second travel restriction, and a second court date
Jayasekara is already subject to a court-ordered travel restriction in a separate matter. He was arrested by the Nuwara Eliya Police in April over an allegation that he threatened a man with a pistol during an altercation, and when the Nuwara Eliya Magistrate’s Court released him on bail the following day it ordered his passport impounded as a condition of release. That case is listed for 9 October — twelve days before the Supreme Court date.
No outlet has explained whether the April impounding remains in force, or why a separate order from the Supreme Court was required if it does.
Background
Jayasekara, a Ratnapura District politician widely known as “Choka Malli,” was elected to Parliament in 2020 while under sentence of death, and went on to serve as a state minister and then as Minister of Ports and Aviation under the previous Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna government. The Court of Appeal acquittal is what allowed that career to continue.
Friday’s order lands on a day when the courts moved against several figures from the same former government. Former minister Johnston Fernando was granted bail by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court with an overseas travel ban attached, and MP Namal Rajapaksa was remanded over an alleged Rs. 100 million bribe. The three matters are unrelated to one another.
A note on the spelling
Ada Derana renders the name Jayasekera in Friday’s report. Its own July 2025 report on the same appeal, and our previous coverage of him, use Jayasekara, which is the form used here.
Not reported
Ada Derana does not name the two co-accused, identify the aggrieved party who brought the appeal, say whether the Attorney-General is supporting it, or give the composition of the bench that made Friday’s order. It does not say whether Jayasekara was represented, whether the travel ban was opposed, or what the 21 October date is for — whether argument, a further mention, or judgment. No other verified newsroom had carried the order at the time of writing.
