COLOMBO, May 20: Sri Lanka’s president has ordered the release of his jailed electoral foe, ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka, bowing to US-led pressure three years after the end of the island’s long ethnic war.

The 61-year-old former four-star general could leave prison on Monday following legal formalities, an official said Sunday, after President Mahinda Rajapaksa marked the third anniversary of the Tamil Tigers’ crushing defeat.

Fonseka was arrested two weeks after he unsuccessfully challenged Rajapaksa’s re-election in January 2010. Since then, he had been incarcerated in military custody as well as jail for two years, three months and two weeks.

The president signed the papers ordering Fonseka’s release on Friday evening, spokesman Bandula Jayasekera said.

“Papers will be sent to the Ministry of Justice on Monday,” he said.

Fonseka’s wife Anoma Fonseka welcomed the decision.

“I welcome the announcement (of the release),” Anoma Fonseka told reporters outside a private hospital where prison authorities took her husband for treatment for a respiratory problem two weeks ago.

“I hope the president will keep his promise to release him unconditionally,” she said.—AFP