{"id":120235,"date":"2014-02-18T13:57:42","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T08:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=120235"},"modified":"2014-02-27T13:35:25","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T08:05:25","slug":"rajiv-gandhi-assassination-death-sentences-commuted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajiv-gandhi-assassination-death-sentences-commuted\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Death Sentences Commuted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Three convicted over killing of Indian PM may be freed as judges rule they cannot be kept indefinitely on death row<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_66449\" style=\"width: 455px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/RAJIV.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66449\" class=\" wp-image-66449 \" alt=\"Rajiv\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/RAJIV.jpg\" width=\"445\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/RAJIV.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/RAJIV-300x186.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 445px) 100vw, 445px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-66449\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rajiv<\/p><\/div>\n<p>India\u2019s supreme court has commuted the death sentences of three men convicted of assassinating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Rajiv+Gandhi&amp;x=7&amp;y=6\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Rajiv Gandhi<\/span><\/a>, the country\u2019s former prime minister, in a case that has riveted the nation for 23 years, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2014\/feb\/18\/rajiv-gandhi-assassination-death-sentences-commuted\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">the Guardian<\/span><\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p>A special anti-terrorism court eventually found four people guilty in 1998. They included a woman, Nalini, who gave birth to a daughter while in prison. She was granted mercy when Rajiv\u2019s widow, Sonia, intervened but three others \u2013 Santhan, Perarivalan and Murugan (Indian Tamils do not use surnames) \u2013 were to be executed in September 2011 when the Madras high court intervened, citing their mercy petitions.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday the supreme court said keeping the men on death row indefinitely was wrong and granted them mercy.\u00a0Perarivalan\u2019s family reacted with relief and joy in Chennai: \u201cIt\u2019s an emotional moment,\u201d his aunt told NDTV. \u201cWhen you see him, he\u2019s a good human being. He will be released and will be enjoying family life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was asked what would she say to the victims\u2019 families. \u201cTwenty-three years have passed \u2026 so definitely we want our son to be released. Other families, they are suffering, we have regret for that, but our son cannot be punished.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":66449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Death Sentences Commuted - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajiv-gandhi-assassination-death-sentences-commuted\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Death Sentences Commuted - 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