COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday pardoned a Tamil rebel who had been convicted on charges of trying to assassinate him over 10 years ago, officials said. The man, identified as Sivaraja Jenivan, was granted amnesty at a ceremony attended by Sirisena in Colombo to mark the first anniversary of his election. “Ordered Presidential pardon to a prisoner who was serving time for attempting to assassinate me in 2005,” the president posted on twitter, along with a picture of him with the pardoned man.

Jenivan was arrested in 2006 on suspicion of attempting to kill Sirisena, a senior cabinet minister at the time, as part of a plan by the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to eliminate government politicians. He was one year into a 10-year jail term, having only been sentenced in 2015. Over a lakh people were killed during Sri Lanka’s 37-year ethnic war.