Emil Ranjan Lamahewa, the former Prisons Commissioner who had been sentenced to death over the deaths of inmates during the Welikada Prison riots in 2012, has been acquitted by the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.

The Supreme Court, consisting of a five-judge bench, overturned the previous death sentence issued by a three-member bench of the Colombo High Court. The decision came after the court considered an appeal filed on behalf of Lamahewa against the death sentence.