title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 10 May, Van der Sloot allegedly accepted the sum of $15,000 by wire transfer to his account in the Netherlands, following a cash payment of $10,000 that was videotaped by undercover investigators in Aruba. In exchange, Van der Sloot told Kelly that his father buried Holloway's remains in the foundation of a house. Authorities determined that this information was false, because the house had not yet been built at the time of Holloway's disappearance. Van der Sloot later e‑mailed Kelly that he lied about the house. Beth Holloway was shocked that the FBI did not promptly file extortion charges against Van der Sloot, allowing him to leave freely with the money to Bogotá on his way to Lima. The FBI and the office of the U.S. Attorney contended that the case had not yet been sufficiently developed.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 3 June 2010, the U.S. District Court of Northern Alabama charged Van der Sloot with extortion and wire fraud. U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance issued an arrest warrant through Interpol to have him prosecuted in the United States. On 4 June, at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, Dutch authorities raided and confiscated items from two homes in the Netherlands, one of them belonging to reporter Jaap Amesz, who had previously interviewed Van der Sloot and claimed knowledge of his criminal activities. Aruban investigators used information gathered from the extortion case to launch a new search at a beach, but no new evidence was found. Aruba's Solicitor-General said they would not seek Van der Sloot's extradition to Aruba. On 30 June, a federal grand jury formally indicted Van der Sloot of the two charges. The indictment filed with the U.S. District Court seeks the forfeiture of the $25,100 that had been paid to Van der Sloot.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: In an interview published by "De Telegraaf" on 6 September 2010, Van der Sloot admitted to the extortion plot, stating: "I wanted to get back at Natalee's family. Her parents have been making my life tough for five years." His attorney said that his client was not paid for the interview and suggested that "maybe there were some mistakes in the translation."


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 9 March 2014, the Peruvian government announced that Van der Sloot would face extradition to the U.S. in the year 2038 to face charges of extortion and wire fraud, after completion of his 28-year sentence in Peru for the murder of Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramírez (see below). In February 2016, an undercover reporter filmed Van der Sloot confessing to Natalee Holloway's murder. The film shows Van der Sloot, in Dutch, laughing over how he never told the truth about the whole event and that he did in fact kill Holloway. His Peruvian wife is also present during this conversation.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 30 May 2010 — the fifth anniversary of Holloway's disappearance — Stephany Tatiana Flores Ramírez, 21, died at the Hotel TAC, in the Miraflores District of Lima. On 2 June, a hotel employee found her beaten body in room 309, which had been registered in Van der Sloot's name. He had departed from the hotel without returning the room key and left the television running. A tennis racquet, identified by the coroner as a possible homicide weapon, was recovered from the room. A hotel guest and an employee came forward to say they saw Van der Sloot and the victim entering the hotel room together, and the police obtained video of the two playing cards at the same table the night before at the Atlantic City Casino in Lima. Van der Sloot had entered Peru via Colombia on 14 May 2010 to attend the Latin American Poker Tour.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Flores was a business student who was less than a year from graduation at the University of Lima. She was the daughter of Ricardo Flores, a former president of the Peruvian Automobile Club, and winner of the "Caminos del Inca" rally in 1991. A prominent businessman and entertainment organizer, he ran for vice president in 2001 and for president five years later on fringe tickets.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Ricardo Flores said that police found date rape drugs in his daughter's car, parked about 50 blocks from the hotel where she died. Her jewelry, money, identification, and credit cards were missing, including about $1,000 her father had given her to purchase a laptop, and over $10,000 she had won earlier at the casino. Flores reportedly kept this money in her car, but a police search found no money in it.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: After Flores' family reported her missing, police retrieved the Hotel TAC surveillance tape and obtained Van der Sloot's name and national identification number. Her brother's wife discovered Van der Sloot's background in a Google search about an hour before her body was found.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Peruvian officials named Van der Sloot as the lone suspect in the homicide investigation. Interpol issued an international arrest warrant for Van der Sloot, believing that he had fled to Chile, possibly intending to return to Aruba through Argentina. Van der Sloot was sighted entering Chile via the Chacalluta border crossing, north of Arica, on 31 May 2010. His ex-girlfriend, Melody Granadillo, said that Van der Sloot sent her a text message asking for money to buy a ticket back to Aruba.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 3 June, Van der Sloot was arrested near Curacaví by the Investigations Police of Chile while traveling in a rented taxi on highway 68 between the coastal city of Viña del Mar and the capital of Santiago. He was found with a laptop, foreign currency, a business card case, detailed charts of ocean currents around Lima, and bloody clothes. His phone's SIM card was missing, which made mobile phone tracking of his location impossible. He told Chilean police that unidentified armed robbers hid in the hotel room and killed Flores when she disobeyed their order to be quiet. Van der Sloot's Dutch attorney claimed that his client was on his way to Santiago to turn himself in. He was subsequently expelled and transported by Chilean police in a Cessna 310 back to Arica to be handed over to Peruvian authorities at the Chacalluta border crossing on 4 June.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Van der Sloot arrived at Lima police headquarters on 5 June, where he was interrogated about the Flores murder while represented by attorney Luz Maria Romero Chinchay. The Dutch embassy provided a translator for his defense. He was held in a seventh-floor cell and permitted to contact his mother. Van der Sloot was placed on suicide watch by guards after it was reported that he deliberately hit his head against a wall. On 10 June, he was moved to a cell at the prosecutor's office in central Lima.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Surveillance video from the Atlantic City Casino recorded Flores winning $10,000 at a baccarat table area on 25 May 2010, while accompanied by a male friend who was not van der Sloot. According to casino spokesperson Luis Laos, she also won $237 playing poker on 29 May and it was common for people to know the identities of big winners. Laos stated that van der Sloot did not win any money that night. At 3:00  on 30 May, Flores was recorded entering the casino alone and walking to a poker table where Van der Sloot was sitting. Van der Sloot had not registered for the Latin American Poker Tour. The deadline to pay the $2,700 entry fee for the 2 June event at the casino was 30 May.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Police released hotel security video showing van der Sloot and Flores entering the Hotel TAC together at about 5:00  on 30 May. At about 8:10 , he is shown walking across the street to a supermarket and returning with bread and two cups of coffee. Around 8:45 , he is seen leaving the hotel alone with his bags.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: An autopsy ruled that Flores did not have sexual intercourse before her death, and that she was not under the influence of enough alcohol to prevent her from resisting an attack. She suffered blunt-force trauma to her head, which caused a brain hemorrhage, cranial fracture, and broken neck. She also suffered significant injuries to her face and showed signs of asphyxiation, according to court documents. Flores tested positive for the presence of amphetamines. The lab report does not indicate whether the victim took the drugs willingly or unknowingly.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: The stains on van der Sloot's clothes matched Flores' blood type. Blood was also found on the floor, hallway, and mattress in the hotel room. Police stated that DNA tests would be conducted on the clothes, skin found under the victim's fingernails, and the previously recovered tennis racquet. Ricardo Flores stated in interviews that his daughter's body needed to be exhumed to gather the fingernail DNA evidence, and that her body had not been cremated for this reason.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 14 March 2011, the National Police of Peru provided a copy of the hard disk drive from van der Sloot's laptop computer to the FBI. Colonel Oscar González, of the technical division of the Peruvian police, stated that the U.S. federal investigation was interested in information related to Holloway's disappearance and the alleged extortion of her family. Peruvian detectives determined that the laptop accessed information about the Holloway case before Flores arrived in van der Sloot's hotel room; it was then used to visit two poker websites at around the time Flores was present in the room. According to a police dossier, the laptop was later used to search Google for the subjects: "Relationship between the Peruvian and Chilean police", "Chilean border pass", "buses in Chile", and "countries that do not extradite in Latin America".


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 7 June 2010, Van der Sloot reportedly confessed to killing Flores, after hours of interrogation. He initially proclaimed his innocence. According to an expert in Peruvian law, the confession fit a defense strategy of trying to get the charge reduced to manslaughter, which is punishable by six to twenty years in prison, while a conviction for murder could result in up to 35 years' imprisonment. The prosecution was seeking a sentence of 30 years. Peru does not issue life sentences in standard cases of murder and has abolished capital punishment in all but exceptional circumstances, such as crimes committed under military law. A life sentence can be issued for a murder committed during the commission of a robbery. Peruvian president Alan García Pérez used the case to seek the reinstatement of the death penalty for murder.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: In his written confession released by Peruvian police, Van der Sloot recounted that he briefly left the hotel to get some coffee and bread, and returned to find Flores using his laptop computer without his permission. A police source stated that she might have found information linking him to the disappearance of Holloway. An altercation allegedly began, and she attempted to escape. According to the aforementioned written confession released by Peruvian authorities, Van der Sloot stated,


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Van der Sloot reportedly stated that he was stoned on marijuana at the time. A detective linked to the case said that Van der Sloot considered getting rid of the body in a suitcase, but decided against it because he would have been stopped at the front desk. He then reportedly drank espresso and took amphetamines to counter fatigue before fleeing.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Criminal police chief Cesar Guardia said Van der Sloot "let slip that he knew the place" where Holloway's body is buried. Guardia stated that the interrogation was limited to their case in Peru, which he considered "practically closed", and that questions about Holloway's disappearance were avoided. Guardia said that the confession contains lies because Van der Sloot's "toxicological report shows no signs that he had ingested any kind of drug." (felonies committed under the influence of drugs can gain leniency in Peruvian courts). Guardia said that the motive for the crime was robbery. Van der Sloot reportedly offered a different motive for killing Flores, stating that he "feared that she would go to the police". On 14 June, Peruvian authorities released written transcripts of Van der Sloot's alleged confession. His mother Anita expressed concern that her son's confession might have been coerced. According to Van der Sloot's former attorney Luz Maria Romero Chinchay, his mother advised him not to make any statements or sign anything, but it was too late.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Van der Sloot later retracted this confession in a prison cell interview with "De Telegraaf", claiming that he had been coerced and "tricked" by police with a promise to be transferred to the Netherlands. He stated that at the time he signed the confession documents, he did not understand the content as it was in Spanish. He was quoted: "In my blind panic, I signed everything, but didn't even know what it said." Van der Sloot said that he was lured to Peru and framed by another gambler, named Elton Garcia, who he claimed was working undercover for the FBI. Van der Sloot's attorney Maximo Alonso Altez Navarro stated his intention to resign because the case "created many problems" for him. He had been threatened and harassed for taking the case, and Van der Sloot's family was unable to afford his legal expenses. However, Navarro stayed on to file a motion to void the confession on the grounds that his client was not properly represented during his interrogation. On 25 June, Superior Court Judge Wilder Casique Alvizuri rejected the motion, noting that Van der Sloot was represented by a state-appointed lawyer and provided a translator by the Dutch embassy. Navarro said that Van der Sloot was as "depressed" as anyone in prison would be.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 11 June 2010, Lima Superior Court Judge Juan Buendia ordered Van der Sloot held on charges of first-degree murder and robbery, determining that he acted with "ferocity and great cruelty". Under Peruvian law, Van der Sloot was not eligible to be released on bail, and would be tried by a panel of three judges rather than a jury. A simple majority of the three was required for conviction. Police transported Van der Sloot on the same day from Lima's Palace of Justice in an armored truck, while angry onlookers yelled and threw rotten lettuce. He was taken to the Miguel Castro Castro maximum security prison and placed in a cell near the prison director's office for his own safety. He was registered as inmate 326390 and separated from the general prison population, under 24 hour guard, in a high-security cell block housing only one other inmate. Van der Sloot reportedly offered to disclose the location of Holloway's body in exchange for transfer to an Aruban prison because he feared for his life. President Pérez said that Van der Sloot would have to stand trial for the homicide before any extradition request would be considered. He also stated that Van der Sloot will serve his prison sentence in Peru; there is no treaty for the transfer of prisoners between Peru and the Netherlands.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 15 June, Aruban and Peruvian authorities announced that they would cooperate in their respective cases involving Van der Sloot. Aruban investigators expected to be able to interview Van der Sloot in Peru in August, after Peruvian authorities had completed their investigation. At his first formal hearing within the on-site courtroom of Miguel Castro Castro prison on 21 June, Van der Sloot refused to discuss the case with Judge Carlos Morales Cordova, claiming that his rights and due process were violated. Van der Sloot filed a complaint with the National Police of Peru, accusing chief detective Miguel Angel Canlla Ore of misconduct. He also claimed that his laptop had been improperly searched. Van der Sloot's defense counsel filed a motion of "habeas corpus" disputing the legality of his detention, and to nullify statements he gave to police, but the motion was declared "unfounded" by Superior Court Judge Wilder Casique Alvizuri on 25 June. The judge upheld all three depositions given by Van der Sloot to police and stated that the defendant's laptop was sealed by the court. Navarro vowed to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court of Peru and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights with a legal strategy to "paralyze the process". The Peruvian court said that this would not hold up the case against Van der Sloot.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Navarro stated that he filed suit against Chinchay, who first represented Van der Sloot during his interrogation, charging her with abuse of authority, conspiracy to commit a crime, and misrepresentation because he did not find her name on the list of public defenders from Peru's Ministry of Justice. Navarro also filed a complaint against Van der Sloot's translator, insisting that he misrepresented himself as an official translator of the Dutch embassy. Chinchay rejected the claims against her, stating that Van der Sloot had selected her as a private attorney after declining another defense attorney, appointed by the state. She contradicted his claims that he did not understand what he was signing, stating that she was able to speak with him in perfect Spanish. She said that Van der Sloot was interested in talking about the Holloway case, thinking that it might get him extradited to Aruba. Chinchay also said that when she told Van der Sloot that she noticed he was signing various documents with very different signatures, he signaled for her to be quiet.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Navarro stated, on 21 August 2010, that the case was stagnating because an official interpreter was unable to be found for the case in Peru. The Peruvian association of translators and interpreters and the Dutch embassy both separately stated at the time that they had been unable to locate one to officially translate Spanish into Dutch. Unlike Aruba and the United States, Peru does not guarantee the right to a speedy trial. On 6 September, a Peruvian appeals court voted 2 to 1 to reject Van der Sloot's motion that he is being unlawfully held. Peruvian statutes permit a suspect to be detained for up to 18 months for interrogation, though Navarro expressed skepticism that law enforcement officers would do so with his client.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: In February 2011, Navarro filed a "violent emotion" defense with the court, arguing that Van der Sloot had entered into a state of temporary insanity because Flores found out about his connection to Holloway from his laptop computer. Under Peruvian law, if the judge accepts this crime of passion argument, the sentence for such a plea could be reduced to only 3 to 5 years; Navarro noted that this could allow Van der Sloot to be eligible for parole in as soon as 20 months. Oscar González of the Peruvian police stated that an examination of Van der Sloot's laptop determined that Flores did not access any such information while she was in the hotel room with him.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: During the trial, the prosecution prepared a psychological investigation of Van der Sloot, saying that he "presents traits of an antisocial personality" and is "indifferent toward others' well-being".


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 11 January 2012, Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to the "qualified murder" and simple robbery of Flores. He was convicted and sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment for the murder on 13 January and he must pay $75,000 to the Flores family. Hours after learning of the sentence, Van der Sloot was transferred to a maximum security prison, Piedras Gordas, located north of Lima. He is currently expected to be released on 10 June 2038.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: In August 2014, Van der Sloot was transferred to Challapalca prison, in the mountainous South of Peru, where conditions are harsh due to the location's altitude. Two months later, a Dutch online news service claimed that Van der Sloot was stabbed and critically injured by fellow prisoners in Peru. Van der Sloot's wife's claim of a stabbing is contested by Peruvian authorities.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Public outcry in Peru has been fueled by local media, which labeled Van der Sloot a "monster", "serial killer", and "psychopath". The coverage of this controversy highlighted cases of other women dying at the hands of foreigners. Peruvian and Colombian newspapers published articles about the investigation of the disappearance of two young women who frequented casinos during Van der Sloot's stay in at least two Bogotá hotels from 6 to 14 May 2010, prior to entering Peru. However, the Administrative Department of Security of Colombia does not consider Van der Sloot a suspect, as they believe his presence in Bogotá was merely in transit to Peru. Dutch daily newspaper "Trouw" warned that the overwhelming pressure on authorities of Van der Sloot's presumed guilt risked turning the case into a show trial. The Dutch consulate told Peruvian authorities that it was concerned how Van der Sloot was being treated and presented to the media.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: In December 2010, "Time" magazine named Van der Sloot's arrest the most notable criminal event of the year, ahead of the Belgian love triangle skydiving-murder case, the Chinese school attacks and the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping trial. ABC News listed the coverage of Van der Sloot's murder confession by "Good Morning America" among the most read stories from its website in 2010. The CBS affiliate near Holloway's hometown named the criminal charges filed against Van der Sloot in 2010 among the top ten stories of the year. Radio Netherlands Worldwide identified him as one of the most talked about Dutch people of the year.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Van der Sloot's cell became the target of a media circus, with reporters vying to gain exclusive access and report about his prison surroundings. Since his incarceration, he has consented to interviews only with "De Telegraaf", in which he admitted to extorting the Holloway family and said that he received a number of marriage proposals in his cell, including one from a woman who wanted to have his child. Van der Sloot reportedly receives fan mail from around the world, though mostly from women residing in the United States and the Netherlands. According to sources within the prison, Van der Sloot sought $1 million in exchange for an on-camera interview.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: The Office of Internal Affairs of the National Penitentiary Institute of Peru began administrative and disciplinary action on 23 August 2010, when Peruvian network América Televisión aired a picture of Van der Sloot with three other inmates that had been taken with official photographic equipment at Miguel Castro Castro prison. The photo included Van der Sloot casually posing with Colombian hitman Hugo Trujillo Ospina, and American murderer William Trickett Smith II. Van der Sloot and Smith have been referred to by local media as "the foreigners accused of the most talked-about assassinations in our country".


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 11 September 2010, Beth Holloway and de Vries traveled to Peru with a Dutch television crew to visit the prison. According to Navarro, his client was taken to meet them "practically by force". Navarro stated that the meeting with Holloway took "less than one minute". Holloway said that she told Van der Sloot that she had "no hate in her soul" for him and asked about her daughter's disappearance, to which Van der Sloot responded he could not speak to her without his lawyer present and handed her Navarro's business card. However, Holloway also stated in interviews about the encounter,


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: According to Navarro, Holloway was "snuck" into the prison without identifying to the Dutch TV crew who she was. A prison spokesperson stated that Holloway's name was not found in the visitor registry. Holloway and the crew were removed from the prison, reportedly after a hidden camera was discovered by the guards. Representatives for Holloway and de Vries denied that a hidden camera was involved, or that anything was seized. Miguel Castro Castro prison warden, Alex Samamé Peña, was suspended after video segments of the confrontation between Holloway's mother and Van der Sloot later began airing on the Dutch network SBS6.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: In October 2010, América Televisión broadcast video of a transaction for marijuana within the prison that was conducted by a shirtless man addressed as "gringo Van der Sloot". Navarro said that the situation was "staged" and asked the National Penitentiary Institute to investigate how it was leaked. Prison spokesperson Bruno Guzman said that Van der Sloot had been painting his cell "to improve his conditions" and the incident was being investigated.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: Van der Sloot's mother, Anita, stated in a Dutch interview that her son could have killed Flores, and that she will not visit him at the prison. She said in another interview that she hopes to talk to the family of the victim and apologize to them.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: In February 2011, Navarro protested a decision by prison officials to deny Radio Netherlands Worldwide permission for a subsequent interview with Van der Sloot. Navarro claimed that the ruling was influenced by upcoming general elections.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: A book concerning both deaths, titled "Portrait of a Monster: Joran van der Sloot, a Murder in Peru, and the Natalee Holloway Mystery" was published in 2011.


title: Joran van der Sloot

text: On 4 July 2014, Van der Sloot married a Peruvian woman named Leidy Figueroa, whom he met while she was selling goods inside the prison. She was seven months pregnant with his child at the time. On 28 September 2014, Figueroa gave birth in Peru.


title: Parole

text: Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or else they may be rearrested and returned to prison.


title: Parole

text: Originating from the French word "parole" ("speech, spoken words" but also "promise"), the term became associated during the Middle Ages with the release of prisoners who gave their word.


title: Parole

text: This differs greatly from pardon, amnesty or commutation of sentence in that parolees are still considered to be serving their sentences, and may be returned to prison if they violate the conditions of their parole.


title: Parole

text: Alexander Maconochie, a Scottish geographer and captain in the Royal Navy, introduced the modern idea of parole when, in 1840, he was appointed superintendent of the British penal colonies in Norfolk Island, Australia. He developed a plan to prepare them for eventual return to society that involved three grades. The first two consisted of promotions earned through good behaviour, labour, and study. The third grade in the system involved conditional liberty outside of prison while obeying rules. A violation would return them to prison and they would start all over again through the ranks of the three-grade process. He reformed its ticket of leave system, instituting what many consider to be the world's first parole system. Prisoners served indeterminate sentences from which they could be released early if they showed evidence of rehabilitation through participation in a graded classification system based on a unit of exchange called a mark. Prisoners earned marks through good behavior, lost them through bad behavior, and could spend them on passage to higher classification statuses ultimately conveying freedom.


title: Parole

text: In an instance of multiple discovery, in 1846, Arnould Bonneville de Marsangy proposed the idea of parole (which he termed "preparatory liberations") to the Civil Tribunal at Reims.


title: Parole

text: In general, in Canada, prisoners are eligible to apply for full parole after serving one-third of their sentences. Prisoners are also eligible to apply for day parole, and can do this before being eligible to apply for full parole.


title: Parole

text: Any prisoner whose sentence is less than two years is sent to a correctional facility in the province or territory where they were convicted, whilst anyone sentenced to serve no less than two years will be sent to a federal correctional facility and will thus have to deal with the Parole Board of Canada.


title: Parole

text: Parole is an option for most prisoners. However, parole is not guaranteed, particularly for prisoners serving life or indeterminate sentences. In cases of first-degree murder, one can apply for parole after 25 years if convicted of a single murder. However, if convicted of multiple murders, either of the first or second-degree, the sentencing judge has the discretion to make parole ineligibility periods consecutive - thereby extending parole ineligibility beyond 25 years and, in rare cases, beyond a normal life-span. On May 27, 2022, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that extending parole ineligibility beyond 25 years was unconstitutional for being "cruel and unusual" punishment.


title: Parole

text: In China, prisoners are often granted medical parole or compassionate release, which releases them on the grounds that they must receive medical treatment which cannot be provided for in prison. Occasionally, medical parole is used as a less public way of releasing a wrongly convicted prisoner.


title: Parole

text: The Chinese legal code has no explicit provision for exile, but often dissidents are released on the grounds that they need to be treated for a medical condition in another country, and with the understanding that they will be reincarcerated if they return to China. Dissidents who have been released on medical parole include Ngawang Chophel, Ngawang Sangdrol, Phuntsog Nyidron, Takna Jigme Zangpo, Wang Dan, Wei Jingsheng, Gao Zhan and Fang Lizhi.


title: Parole

text: Until 2001, parole in Israel was possible only after the prisoner had served two thirds of their sentence. On 13 February 2001, the Knesset passed a bill, brought forward by Reuven Rivlin and David Libai, which allowed the early release of prisoners who had served half of their prison term (the so-called "Deri Law"). The law was originally intended to help ease overcrowding in prisons.


title: Parole

text: "Libertà condizionata" is covered by Article 176 of the Italian Penal Code. A prisoner is eligible if he has served at least 30 months (or 26 years for life sentences), and the time remaining on his sentence is less than half the total (normally), a quarter of the total (if previously convicted or never convicted) or five years (for sentences greater than 7.5 years). In 2006, 21 inmates were granted "libertà condizionata".


title: Parole

text: In New Zealand, inmates serving a short sentence (up to two years) are automatically released after serving half their sentence, without a parole hearing. Inmates serving sentences of more than two years are normally seen by the New Zealand Parole Board after serving one-third of the sentence, although the judge at sentencing can make an order for a minimum non-parole period of up to two-thirds of the sentence. Inmates serving life sentences usually serve a minimum of 10 years, or longer depending on the minimum non-parole period, before being eligible for parole. Parole is not an automatic right and it was declined in 71 percent of hearings in the year ending 30 June 2010.


title: Parole

text: The Parole Boards in the UK are only involved in the release of prisoners with specific sentences. Indeterminate sentences (life imprisonment and imprisonment for public protection) are always handled by the Parole Board because they have no fixed release date. Some determinate or "fixed" sentences, such as extended determinate sentences, are also handled by the Parole Board, but for the majority of prisoners the Parole Board will not be involved in their release.


title: Parole

text: The conditions of release are called a licence, and parole is called "released on licence". There are seven standard licence conditions for all prisoners:


title: Parole

text: When a prisoner does not have to have their release approved by the Parole Board, further "additional licence conditions" may be suggested by the Probation Service and set by prison governors. When the Parole Board is involved, the Probation Service may suggest additional conditions, but the Parole Board is responsible for determining which additional conditions will be added to the licence. If an offender breaks any of these conditions, they can be "recalled" or returned to prison.


title: Parole

text: Since 2014 many of the probation and license monitoring functions have been carried out by private-sector "community rehabilitation companies" (CRCs) as well as the National Probation Service. In May 2019 the government announced that supervision of offenders, including supervision of offenders released on licence, would be re-nationalised. The decision was made following multiple criticisms of the system which led Chief probation inspector Dame Glenys Stacey to describe the system as "irredeemably flawed".


title: Parole

text: Penologist Zebulon Brockway introduced parole when he became superintendent of Elmira Reformatory in Elmira, New York. To manage prison populations and rehabilitate those incarcerated, he instituted a two-part strategy that consisted of indeterminate sentences and parole releases. This was significant in prison reform due to its implication that prisoners began their rehabilitation during incarceration, which would be recognizable by a parole board. It also provided newfound emphasis on prisoners' protection from cruel and unusual punishment.


title: Parole

text: In some jurisdictions in the United States, courts may specify in a sentence how much time must be served before a prisoner is eligible for parole. This is often done by specifying an indeterminate sentence of, say, "5 to 15 years", or "15 years to life". The latter type is known as an indeterminate life sentence; in contrast, a sentence of "life without the possibility of parole" is known as a determinate life sentence.


title: Parole

text: On the federal level, Congress abolished parole in the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (Pub. L. No. 98-473 § 218(a)(5), 98 Stat. 1837, 2027 [repealing 18 U.S.C.A. § 4201 et seq.]). Federal prisoners may, however, earn a maximum of 54 days good time credit per year against their sentence (18 U.S.C.A. § 3624(b)). At the time of sentencing, the federal judge may also specify a post-imprisonment period of supervised release. The U.S. Parole Commission still has jurisdiction over parole for those prisoners convicted of felonies in the District of Columbia and who are serving their sentences there, as well as over certain federally incarcerated military and international prisoners.


title: Parole

text: In most states, the decision of whether an inmate is paroled is vested in a paroling authority such as a parole board. Mere good conduct while incarcerated in and of itself does not necessarily guarantee that an inmate will be paroled. Other factors may enter into the decision to grant or deny parole, most commonly the establishment of a permanent residence and immediate, gainful employment or some other clearly visible means of self-support upon release (such as Social Security if the prisoner is old enough to qualify). Many states now permit sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (such as for murder and espionage), and any prisoner not sentenced to either this or the death penalty will eventually have the right to petition for release (one stateAlaskamaintains neither the death penalty nor life imprisonment without parole as sentencing options).


title: Parole

text: Before being granted the privilege of parole, the inmate meets with members of the parole board and is interviewed, The parolee also has a psychological exam. The inmate must first agree to abide by the conditions of parole set by the paroling authority. While in prison, the inmate signs a parole certificate or contract. On this contract are the conditions that the inmate must follow. These conditions usually require the parolee to meet regularly with his or her parole officer or community corrections agent, who assesses the behavior and adjustment of the parolee and determines whether the parolee is violating any of his or her terms of release (typically these include being at home during certain hours which is called a curfew, maintaining steady employment, not absconding, refraining from illicit drug use and, sometimes, abstaining from alcohol, attending addiction treatment or counseling, and having no contact with their victim). The inmate gives an address which is verified by parole officers as valid before the inmate is released to parole supervision.


title: Parole

text: Upon release, the parolee goes to a parole office and is assigned a parole officer. Parole officers make unannounced visits to parolees' houses or apartments to check on them. During these home visits officers look for signs of drug or alcohol use, guns or illegal weapons, and other illegal activities. Should parolees start to use drugs or alcohol, they are told to go to drug or alcohol counseling and Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Should they not comply with conditions on the parole certificate (including abstention from voting) a warrant is issued for their arrest. Their parole time is stopped when the warrant is issued and starts only after they are arrested. They have a parole violation hearing within a specified time, and then a decision is made by the parole board to revoke their parole or continue the parolee on parole. In some cases, a parolee may be discharged from parole before the time called for in the original sentence if it is determined that the parole restrictions are no longer necessary for the protection of society (this most frequently occurs when elderly parolees are involved).


title: Parole

text: Service members who commit crimes while in the U.S. military may be subject to court martial proceedings under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). If found guilty, they may be sent to federal or military prisons and upon release may be supervised by U.S. Federal Probation officers.


title: Parole

text: Parole in the United States has proven to be politically divisive. Beginning from the initiation of the war on drugs in the 1970s, politicians began to advertise their “tough on crime” stances, encouraging a tightening of penal policy and resulting in longer sentences for what were previously referred to as minor drug violations. During elections, politicians whose administrations parole any large number of prisoners (or, perhaps, one notorious criminal) are typically attacked by their opponents as being "soft on crime". According to the U.S. Department of Justice, at least sixteen states have removed the option of parole entirely, and four more have abolished parole for certain violent offenders. However, during the rise of mass incarceration in the 1970s, the states that continued to use parole and indeterminate sentencing contributed more to rising incarceration rates than those without parole boards. Said states implemented a dramatic decrease of parole releases, which inevitably resulted in longer sentences for more prisoners. From 1980 to 2009, indeterminate sentencing states made up nine of the ten states with the highest incarceration rate.


title: Parole

text: Starting in the 1980s, parole was revisited as a method once again to manage prison populations and as financial motivation to prevent further budget straining. The new approach to parole release was accompanied with the growth of a mass surveillance state. The supervision practices of increased drug testing, intensive supervision, unannounced visits and home confinement are widely used today. Additionally, a growing condition of parole was to assume the role of informant towards frequently surveilled communities.


title: Parole

text: The Great Recession of 2008 coupled with the Twin Towers attack on September 11, 2001 contributed to the public emphasis on the war on terror and eventually led to a trend of lowering incarceration. In fact, presidential politics between 2001 and 2012 were, for the first time in ten years, not focused on domestic crime control and even saw the promotion of the Second Chance Act by George W. Bush, who used the act to pledge federal money for reentry as a symbol of his "compassionate conservatism".


title: Parole

text: Consistent with social disparities in criminal sentencing, parole candidates in the USA face stigmas related to their race, sex, economic background and immigration status that significantly affect their probability of being released. Convicts who are non-white or non-citizens are most likely to be denied parole.


title: Parole

text: Since the 1990s, parole and indeterminate sentencing have been the focus of debate in the United States with some emphasizing reform of the parole system and others calling for its abolishment altogether. These debates are fueled by a growing scholarship that criticizes U.S. parole boards and also the parole system more broadly.


title: Parole

text: Parole boards are seen as lacking in efficient qualifications and too politicized in the appointment process. The decision for granting parole has been criticized for neglecting the due process of prisoners on a case-by-case basis. Additionally, the process for being granted a commutation has been criticized, as many prisoners have been denied a commutation for not showing the right amount of "remorse" or proving substantially that they were ready to contribute again, which are aspects that many argue are too normative and subjective.


title: Parole

text: Most agree that, as was originally intended, the parole system puts a necessary focus on rehabilitation, despite its current problems which are widely debated. Critics note that it is becoming more and more expensive to the taxpayer, with little evidence of successful rehabilitation for prisoners. The conditions of parole themselves are often attacked as well, critiqued for being overwhelmingly criminogenic and perpetuating mass surveillance and a permanent state of imprisonment that does little to ensure a smooth reentry into society. Critics note that greater discretion is required to decide which parolees require costly supervisory resources and which ones do not, rather than placing digital, physical, and structural restrictions on every parolee.


title: Parole

text: The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in 2005 that about 45% of parolees completed their sentences successfully, while 38% were returned to prison, and 11% absconded. These statistics, the DOJ says, are relatively unchanged since 1995; even so, some states (including New York) have abolished parole altogether for violent felons, and the federal government abolished it in 1984 for all offenders convicted of a federal crime, whether violent or not. Despite the decline in jurisdictions with a functioning parole system, the average annual growth of parolees was an increase of about 1.6% per year between 1995 and 2002.


title: Parole

text: A variant of parole is known as "time off for good behavior", or, colloquially, "good time". Unlike the traditional form of parolewhich may be granted or denied at the discretion of a parole boardtime off for good behavior is automatic absent a certain number (or gravity) of infractions committed by a convict while incarcerated (in most jurisdictions the released inmate is placed under the supervision of a parole officer for a certain amount of time after being so released). In some cases "good time" can reduce the original sentence by as much as one-half. It is usually not made available to inmates serving life sentences, as there is no release date that can be moved up.


title: Parole

text: Some states in the United States have what is known as "mandatory supervision", whereby an inmate is released before the completion of their sentence due to legal technicalities which oblige the offender justice system to free them. In the federal prison system, and in some states such as Texas, inmates are compensated with "good time", which is counted towards time served. For example, if an inmate served five years of a ten-year prison term, and also had five years of "good time", they will have completed their sentence "on paper", obliging the state to release them unless deemed a threat to society in writing by the parole board. Where parole is granted or denied at the discretion of a parole board, mandatory supervision does not involve a decision making process: one either qualifies for it or does not. Mandatory supervision tends to involve stipulations that are more lenient than those of parole, and in some cases place no obligations at all on the individual being released.


title: Parole

text: In US immigration law, the term "parole" has two meanings related to allowing persons to enter or leave the United States without the normally required documentation.


title: Parole

text: According to a review of the academic literature by economist Jennifer Doleac, reductions in parole supervision was one of the most cost-effective ways to improve the reintegration and rehabilitation of the formerly-incarcerated.


title: Parole

text: Parole is "the agreement of persons who have been taken prisoner by an enemy that they will not again take up arms against those who captured them, either for a limited time or during the continuance of the war." The US Department of Defense defines parole more broadly: "Parole agreements are promises given the captor by a POW to fulfill stated conditions, such as not to bear arms or not to escape, in consideration of special privileges, such as release from captivity or lessened restraint."


title: Parole

text: The practice of paroling enemy troops began thousands of years ago, at least as early as the time of Carthage. Parole allowed the prisoners' captors to avoid the burdens of having to feed and care for them while still avoiding having the prisoners rejoin their old ranks once released; it could also allow the captors to recover their own men in a prisoner exchange. Hugo Grotius, an early international lawyer, favorably discussed prisoner of war parole. During the American Civil War, both the Dix–Hill Cartel and the Lieber Code set out rules regarding prisoner of war parole. Francis Lieber's thoughts on parole later reappeared in the Declaration of Brussels of 1874, the Hague Convention, and the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.


title: Parole

text: In the United States, current policy prohibits US military personnel who are prisoners of war from accepting parole. The Code of the United States Fighting Force states: "I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy." The position is reiterated by the Department of Defense. "The United States does not authorize any Military Service member to sign or enter into any such parole agreement."


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: The Purge: Election Year is a 2016 American dystopian political action horror film written and directed by James DeMonaco and starring Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Mykelti Williamson. It is the sequel to 2014's "" and is the third installment in the "Purge" franchise. Jason Blum and Michael Bay are among the film's producers.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: The film was released on July 1, 2016, and received mixed reviews from critics. It earned more than $118 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of the series before being passed by the fourth film/prequel, "The First Purge", in July 2018. A direct sequel, "The Forever Purge", was finally released in July 2021 due to delay from the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: In 2017, the film's tagline 'Keep America Great', received attention from the internet and media when it was the same slogan used by Donald Trump for his 2020 re-election campaign.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: In 2022, a young Charlene Roan is forced to watch as her family is killed on Purge night. Eighteen years later, in 2040, Roan is a U.S. Senator running for President and promising to end the Purge nights. Former police sergeant Leo Barnes is now head of security for Roan. The New Founding Fathers of America (NFFA) and their candidate, Minister Edwidge Owens, view Roan as a threat and decide to revoke immunity on government officials during the Purge.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: Watching the Senator's TV debate are deli owner Joe Dixon, his assistant Marcos, and Emergency Medical Technician Laney Rucker. A pair of teenage girls enter the store and begin stealing, only to be stopped by Joe. The girls mock Joe until Laney steps in, at which point they surrender their stolen goods and leave. A phone call for Joe reveals that his insurance premiums for Purge coverage have been raised beyond his affordability. Meanwhile, more tourists visit the US to join the Purge.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: On the night of the Purge, Joe guards his store and is joined by Marcos, and together they manage to repel an attack by the teenage girls. Laney travels the city providing medical care to the wounded. Roan decides to wait out the Purge from her home rather than a secure location in order to secure the vote, and is accompanied by Barnes, Chief Couper, Eric and additional security forces. However, they are betrayed by Couper and Eric, who allow a paramilitary force led by Earl Danzinger to kill the security detail. Barnes escorts the Senator to safety, but is wounded in the process. He detonates a bomb in the house, killing Eric and Chief Couper.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: Barnes and Roan attempt to seek shelter but are ambushed by a group of Purgers and taken captive. Before they are executed, Joe and Marcos shoot the gang dead, having seen the pair's plight from the store's rooftop. As they take shelter in Joe's store, the teenage girls return with reinforcements but are rescued by Laney, who kills the girls. The group are then ambushed by Danzinger in a helicopter, and seek refuge in an overpass where Barnes realizes they were tracked by the bullet lodged inside him, and manages to extract it as they are met by the Crips. In exchange for the group rendering medical aid to an injured Crips member, the gang plants the bullet elsewhere to divert the paramilitary team.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: The group arrives at an underground anti-Purge hideout run by Dante Bishop. Barnes discovers that Bishop's group intends on assassinating Owens, in an effort to put an end to the Purge. A large group of paramilitary personnel arrive at the hideout looking for Bishop. Barnes and Roan escape back to the streets and meet up with Joe, Marcos and Laney, who had left the hideout earlier to return to Joe's store.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: While fleeing the city, the ambulance is hit by Danzinger's team and Roan is pulled out before Barnes can assist. He leads the group and Bishop's team to a fortified cathedral where the NFFA plans to sacrifice her. Before Roan can be killed by the NFFA, the group arrives and cause a massive shootout that kills the congregation except Owens and NFFA loyalist Harmon James, who both escape. Owens is caught by Bishop's group who still intends on killing him but Roan is able to persuade them not to. The remaining paramilitary forces arrive, killing Bishop and his men. Danzinger fights Barnes, wherein the latter gains the upper hand. As Roan's group frees Owen's victims, James emerges from hiding and kills one of the victims but is shot by Joe in a crossfire, who later succumbs to his injuries.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: Two months later, Marcos and Laney renovate Joe's store as they watch a television announcement declaring Roan's landslide victory. Another news report states of violent uprisings across the country from NFFA supporters in response to the election results.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: On October 6, 2014, it was announced that James DeMonaco would be back to write and direct the third film, while producers Sebastian Lemercier, Blumhouse Productions' Jason Blum, and Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller, would also be back. On August 3, 2015, it was announced that Frank Grillo would return for the sequel to play Leo Barnes. On September 10, 2015, more cast was announced, including Betty Gabriel, Edwin Hodge, Kyle Secor, Joseph Julian Soria, Mykelti Williamson, and Elizabeth Mitchell.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: Shooting began on September 16, 2015. Although a few scenes were filmed in Washington, DC, most of the movie was shot in Rhode Island, both in its capital Providence, and Woonsocket. The main streets of Woonsocket were transformed into the near-future Washington, DC. The NFFA-captured Catholic cathedral where Owens' purge mass takes place, as well as the cathedral crypt scenes, were filmed at the St. Ann's Church Complex. The Rhode Island State House stood in as the White House and its rotunda and some of its interiors such as the Press Room and basement were also used for filming. Numerous landmarks of both Woonsocket and Providence make cameos in the film. The Roan household was shot in another part of Woonsocket and some of the interiors were shot on a soundstage to allow more room for cameras and crew.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: Nathan Whitehead returned to compose the score, having done the music for the first two "Purge" films. The soundtrack was released on July 1, 2016, to coincide with the release of the film.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: Originally, the film was set to be released on Monday, July 4, 2016, to coincide with the Fourth of July, but was moved to Friday, July 1. It was released in the United Kingdom on August 26.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: "The Purge: Election Year" was released on digital platforms on September 20, 2016 and on Blu-ray and DVD on October 4, 2016. A 4K UHD Blu-ray release occurred on June 12, 2018.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: "The Purge: Election Year" grossed $79.2 million in North America and $39.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $118.6 million, against a budget of $10 million. "Deadline Hollywood" calculated the net profit of the film to be $44.8 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: In the United States and Canada, the film opened alongside "The BFG" and "The Legend of Tarzan", and was projected to gross around $25 million in its opening weekend. The film grossed $3.6 million from Thursday night previews, outperforming both of its predecessors (the original's $3.4 million in 2013 and ""'s in $2.6 million in 2014). In its opening weekend, the film grossed $31.4 million, landing in between the $34 million debut for the first film and the $29 million opening for the second, and finished third at the box office behind "Finding Dory" ($41.4 million) and "The Legend of Tarzan" ($38.6 million). The film grossed a total of $34.8 million over its four-day July 4 holiday frame.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 56% based on 161 reviews, with an average rating of 5.50/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It isn't particularly subtle, but "The Purge: Election Year"s blend of potent jolts and timely themes still add up to a nastily effective diversion." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 55 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" gave the movie a positive review, saying """The Purge: Election Year"" takes itself just seriously enough to provide the expected measure of fun - a blend of aggression, release and relief." On the other hand, Alan Zilberman of "The Washington Post" gave the movie 1.5 stars out of 4, saying "Even DeMonaco seems bored by the sieges, escapes and gun battles. Silly one-liners are the only saving grace, and that's because such acting veterans as Williamson know how to sell them."


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: In September 2016, James DeMonaco, who wrote and directed every film in the series thus far, stated that the fourth "Purge" film would be a prequel to the trilogy. The film will reportedly show how the United States got to the point of accepting the Purge Night.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: On February 17, 2017, DeMonaco announced that a fourth installment is in development at Universal Studios. DeMonaco will write the script, while Jason Blum from Blumhouse Productions and Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form from Platinum Dunes will return to produce the film with Sébastien K. Lemercier. The film was set for a July 4, 2018 release date.


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: On July 20, 2017, it was announced that Gerard McMurray will be directing the fourth film titled, "The First Purge".


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: By May 2019, Universal Pictures announced the fifth Purge film was in development, with DeMonaco returning to write, and acting as co-producer with Sébastien K. Lemercier through their company Man in a Tree Productions. Jason Blum also produced through Blumhouse Productions, along with Michael Bay, Brad Fuller, and Andrew Form through Platinum Dunes. The film would act as a direct sequel to "Election Year".


title: The Purge: Election Year

text: By July 2021, DeMonaco was revealed to be writing for a sixth film, as Blum intends to continue the franchise. The film will be a sequel to "The Forever Purge", with Frank Grillo returning to star.


title: Letter frequency

text: Letter frequency is the number of times letters of the alphabet appear on average in written language. Letter frequency analysis dates back to the Arab mathematician Al-Kindi (c. 801–873 AD), who formally developed the method to break ciphers. Letter frequency analysis gained importance in Europe with the development of movable type in 1450 AD, where one must estimate the amount of type required for each letterform. Linguists use letter frequency analysis as a rudimentary technique for language identification, where it is particularly effective as an indication of whether an unknown writing system is alphabetic, syllabic, or ideographic.


title: Letter frequency

text: The use of letter frequencies and frequency analysis plays a fundamental role in cryptograms and several word puzzle games, including Hangman, "Scrabble", "Wordle" and the television game show "Wheel of Fortune". One of the earliest descriptions in classical literature of applying the knowledge of English letter frequency to solving a cryptogram is found in Edgar Allan Poe's famous story "The Gold-Bug", where the method is successfully applied to decipher a message giving the location of a treasure hidden by Captain Kidd.


title: Letter frequency

text: Herbert S. Zim, in his classic introductory cryptography text "Codes and Secret Writing", gives the English letter frequency sequence as "ETAON RISHD LFCMU GYPWB VKJXZQ", the most common letter pairs as "TH HE AN RE ER IN ON AT ND ST ES EN OF TE ED OR TI HI AS TO", and the most common doubled letters as "LL EE SS OO TT FF RR NN PP CC". Different ways of counting can produce somewhat different orders.


title: Letter frequency

text: Letter frequencies also have a strong effect on the design of some keyboard layouts. The most frequent letters are on the bottom row of the Blickensderfer typewriter, and the home row of the Dvorak keyboard layout.


title: Letter frequency

text: The frequency of letters in text has been studied for use in cryptanalysis, and frequency analysis in particular, dating back to the Arab mathematician Al-Kindi (c. 801–873 AD), who formally developed the method (the ciphers breakable by this technique go back at least to the Caesar cipher invented by Julius Caesar, so this method could have been explored in classical times). Letter frequency analysis gained additional importance in Europe with the development of movable type in 1450 AD, where one must estimate the amount of type required for each letterform, as evidenced by the variations in letter compartment size in typographer's type cases.


title: Letter frequency

text: No exact letter frequency distribution underlies a given language, since all writers write slightly differently. However, most languages have a characteristic distribution which is strongly apparent in longer texts. Even language changes as extreme as from Old English to modern English (regarded as mutually unintelligible) show strong trends in related letter frequencies: over a small sample of Biblical passages, from most frequent to least frequent, ' of Old English compares to ' of modern English, with the most extreme differences concerning letterforms not shared.


title: Letter frequency

text: Linotype machines for the English language assumed the letter order, from most to least common, to be ' based on the experience and custom of manual compositors. The equivalent for the French language was '.


title: Letter frequency

text: Arranging the alphabet in Morse into groups of letters that require equal amounts of time to transmit, and then sorting these groups in increasing order, yields . Letter frequency was used by other telegraph systems, such as the Murray Code.


title: Letter frequency

text: Letter frequencies, like word frequencies, tend to vary, both by writer and by subject. One cannot write an essay about x-rays without using frequently, and the essay will have an idiosyncratic letter frequency if the essay is about the use of x-rays to treat zebras in Qatar. Different authors have habits which can be reflected in their use of letters. Hemingway's writing style, for example, is visibly different from Faulkner's. Letter, bigram, trigram, word frequencies, word length, and sentence length can be calculated for specific authors, and used to prove or disprove authorship of texts, even for authors whose styles are not so divergent.


title: Letter frequency

text: Accurate average letter frequencies can only be gleaned by analyzing a large amount of representative text. With the availability of modern computing and collections of large text corpora, such calculations are easily made. Examples can be drawn from a variety of sources (press reporting, religious texts, scientific texts and general fiction) and there are differences especially for general fiction with the position of and , with becoming more common.


title: Letter frequency

text: Also, to note that different dialects of a language will also affect a letter's frequency. For example, an author in the United States would produce something in which is more common than an author in the United Kingdom writing on the same topic: words like "analyze", "apologize", and "recognize" contain the letter in American English, whereas the same words are spelled "analyse", "apologise", and "recognise" in British English. This would highly affect the frequency of the letter as it is a rarely used letter by British speakers in the English language.


title: Letter frequency

text: The "top twelve" letters constitute about 80% of the total usage. The "top eight" letters constitute about 65% of the total usage. Letter frequency as a function of rank can be fitted well by several rank functions, with the two-parameter Cocho/Beta rank function being the best. Another rank function with no adjustable free parameter also fits the letter frequency distribution reasonably well (the same function has been used to fit the amino acid frequency in protein sequences.) A spy using the VIC cipher or some other cipher based on a straddling checkerboard typically uses a mnemonic such as "a sin to err" (dropping the second "r") or "at one sir" to remember the top eight characters.


title: Letter frequency

text: There are three ways to count letter frequency that result in very different charts for common letters. The first method, used in the chart below, is to count letter frequency in root words of a dictionary. The second is to include all word variants when counting, such as "abstracts", "abstracted" and "abstracting" and not just the root word of "abstract". This system results in letters like appearing much more frequently, such as when counting letters from lists of the most used English words on the Internet. A final variant is to count letters based on their frequency of use in actual texts, resulting in certain letter combinations like becoming more common due to the frequent use of common words like "the", "then", "both", "this", etc. Absolute usage frequency measures like this are used when creating keyboard layouts or letter frequencies in old fashioned printing presses.


title: Letter frequency

text: An analysis of entries in the Concise Oxford dictionary, ignoring frequency of word use, gives an order of "EARIOTNSLCUDPMHGBFYWKVXZJQ".


title: Letter frequency

text: The letter-frequency table below is taken from Pavel Mička's website, which cites Robert Lewand's "Cryptological Mathematics".


title: Letter frequency

text: According to Lewand, arranged from most to least common in appearance, the letters are: etaoinshrdlcumwfgypbvkjxqz. Lewand's ordering differs slightly from others, such as Cornell University Math Explorer's Project, which produced a table after measuring 40,000 words.


title: Letter frequency

text: In English, the space is slightly more frequent than the top letter () and the non-alphabetic characters (digits, punctuation, etc.) collectively occupy the fourth position (having already included the space) between and .


title: Letter frequency

text: The frequency of the first letters of words or names is helpful in pre-assigning space in physical files and indexes. Given 26 filing cabinet drawers, rather than a 1:1 assignment of one drawer to one letter of the alphabet, it is often useful to use a more equal-frequency-letter code by assigning several low-frequency letters to the same drawer (often one drawer is labeled VWXYZ), and to split up the most-frequent initial letters () into several drawers (often 6 drawers Aa-An, Ao-Az, Ca-Cj, Ck-Cz, Sa-Si, Sj-Sz). The same system is used in some multi-volume works such as some encyclopedias. Cutter numbers, another mapping of names to a more equal-frequency code, are used in some libraries.


title: Letter frequency

text: Both the overall letter distribution and the word-initial letter distribution approximately match the Zipf distribution and even more closely match the Yule distribution.


title: Letter frequency

text: Often the frequency distribution of the first digit in each datum is significantly different from the overall frequency of all the digits in a set of numeric data, see Benford's law for details.


title: Letter frequency

text: An analysis by Peter Norvig on Google Books data determined, among other things, the frequency of first letters of English words.


title: Letter frequency

text: A June 2012 analysis using a text document containing all words in the English language exactly once, found to be the most common starting letter for words in the English language, followed by .


title: Letter frequency

text: The figure below illustrates the frequency distributions of the 26 most common Latin letters across some languages. All of these languages use a similar 25+ character alphabet.


title: Letter frequency

text: Useful tables for single letter, digram, trigram, tetragram, and pentagram frequencies based on 20,000 words that take into account word-length and letter-position combinations for words 3 to 7 letters in length:


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Mahinda Rajapaksa (, ; born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa; 18 November 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022; the Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2004 and 2018 to 2019, and the Minister of Finance from 2005 to 2015 and 2019 to 2021. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kurunegala since 2015.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa is a lawyer by profession and was first elected to the Parliament of Sri Lanka in 1970. He served as the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party from 2005 to 2015. Rajapaksa was sworn in for his first six-year term as president on 19 November 2005. He was subsequently re-elected in 2010 for a second term. Rajapaksa was defeated in his bid for a third term in the 2015 presidential election by Maithripala Sirisena, and he left office on 9 January 2015. Later that year, Rajapaksa unsuccessfully sought to become Prime Minister in the 2015 parliamentary election; that year, the United People's Freedom Alliance was defeated but was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Kurunegala District.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: On 26 October 2018, Rajapaksa was appointed to the office of prime minister by President Maithripala Sirisena after the United People's Freedom Alliance withdrew from the unity government. The incumbent, Ranil Wickremesinghe, refused to accept his dismissal, stating that it was unconstitutional. This disagreement resulted in a constitutional crisis. The Sri Lankan Parliament passed two no-confidence motions brought against Rajapaksa on 14 and 16 November 2018. Failing to follow proper procedures, President Sirisena rejected both. On 3 December 2018, a court suspended Rajapaksa's powers as Prime Minister, ruling that his cabinet could not function until establishing its legitimacy. Rajapaksa resigned from the post of prime minister on 15 December 2018. Wickremesinghe was re-appointed as Prime Minister, and Rajapaksa was appointed Leader of the Opposition.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa became the leader of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna in 2019, splitting the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He became Prime Minister again on 21 November 2019 after being appointed by his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had become president on 18 November after winning the 2019 Sri Lankan presidential election. On 9 August 2020, Rajapaksa was sworn in as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the fourth time at a Buddhist temple on Colombo's outskirts. On 3 May 2022, a motion of no confidence aimed at Rajapaksa and his cabinet was declared by opposition leaders. He was targeted during the 2022 Sri Lankan Protests over the corruption and mismanagement by the Rajapaksa family which led to an economic crisis that brought Sri Lanka to the point of bankruptcy as it defaulted on its loans for the first time in its history since independence. Protesters called him "Myna" and demanded his resignation which he resisted. On 9 May 2022, Mahinda Rajapaksa organised his supporters at his official residence who were brought by buses and led by SLPP MPs. The loyalists then attacked protestors at Temple Trees before assaulting protestors at Galle Face as attacks were carried out simultaneously against protests in other areas; however this intensified protests and retaliatory violence against Rajapaksa loyalists erupted islandwide and Mahinda Rajapaksa submitted his letter of resignation the same day.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: During Rajapaksa's political career, he has been accused of multiple crimes including war crimes during the last years of the Sri Lankan civil war as well as other criminal accusations including human rights violations during his presidency, corruption and for instigating violence on anti-government protestors on 9 May 2022.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa spent his formative years at the family home in Medamulana. At the age of six, he was sent to his father's school Richmond College in Galle. Initially, he and his elder brother were boarded with a family in Galle, later their mother rented a house in Galle called the 'Singapore House' and moved there to facilitate the education of the growing family. In the mid-fifties, the Rajapaksa family moved to Colombo and Mahinda Rajapaksa was admitted to Nalanda College, Colombo. Later in 1957, he transferred to Thurstan College, where he took part in sports such as cricket, rugger and athletics, taking part in the 400m relay team and becoming the putt shot champion.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In the mid-sixties, he started work as a library assistant at the Vidyodaya Pirivena and soon became active in leftwing politics. He became a member of the Ceylon Mercantile Union and was elected its branch secretary in 1967. His father who had lost his parliamentary seat in the 1965 general elections, died in November 1967. The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) party leader Sirima Bandaranaike offered his father's post of SLFP party organiser for the Beliatta electorate to his older brother Chamal. Chamal who had joined the Ceylon Police Force as a Sub-inspector, turndown Mrs Bandaranaike's offer in favour of his younger brother and Mahinda Rajapaksa was appointed as SLFP organiser for Beliatta in 1968.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa contested the 1970 general elections as the SLFP candidate for the Beliatta constituency and was elected to the House of Representatives having gained 23,103 votes against his rival Dr Ranjit Atapattu from the United National Party (UNP) who gained 16,477. At the time he was the youngest member of parliament (MP) at the age of twenty-four years and served as a backbencher in the governing party. Following changes to the admission process to the Sri Lanka Law College, which allowed young MPs to gain admission, he entered Sri Lanka Law College and studied law while serving as an MP. In July 1977, Rajapaksa lost his parliamentary seat in SLFP's landslide defeat in the 1977 general elections, to Dr Ranjit Atapattu who had gained 24,289 votes to Rajapaksa's 17,896.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In November 1977, Rajapaksa was called to the bar as an attorney at law. He thereafter started his legal practice in criminal law in the Unofficial Bar in Tangalle, which he did until 1994.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: He continued to engage in politics and was re-elected to parliament in 1989, representing Hambantota District under proportional representation. He came to prominence as a leader, together with Dr Manorani Saravanamuttu of the Mothers' Front. Saravanamuttu's organization united the mothers of those who had "disappeared" during the 1987–1989 JVP insurrection; the insurrection was instigated by a rebel group that called themselves , or "Patriotic National Movement".


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: During the insurrection, Rajapaksa frequently tried to encourage third-party intervention. He frequently complained about Sri Lanka's situation while in Geneva; he claimed that to restore democratic ideals, it is neither treacherous nor unpatriotic to seek third-party intervention. He also demanded that the United Nations, alongside NGOs such as Amnesty International, be allowed to come to Sri Lanka and investigate.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa requested that foreign nations put human-rights-related conditions on Sri Lanka when giving aid. On 25 October 1990, he said, "If the government is going to deny human rights, we should go not only to Geneva, but to any place in the world, or hell if necessary, and act against the government. The lamentation of this country's innocents should be raised anywhere." In 1994, Rajapaksa appeared in the Sinhalese film "Nomiyena Minisun".


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In 1994, following the election victory of the People's Alliance, a political front led by Sri Lanka Freedom Party and headed by Chandrika Kumaratunga, Rajapaksa was appointed Minister of Labor. He held this post until 1997 when, following a cabinet reshuffle, his portfolio was changed to Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: When the United National Party (UNP) defeated the People's Alliance in the 2001 elections, Rajapaksa lost his position in the government. He was however appointed as Leader of the Opposition in March 2002.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: After Sri Lanka's 2004 parliamentary elections, in which the United People's Freedom Alliance gained a slim majority, Rajapaksa became the new Prime Minister. He was sworn in as Sri Lanka's 13th Prime Minister on 6 April 2004. While Rajapaksa was Prime Minister, he was also in charge of the Ministry of Highways, Ports & Shipping.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Mahinda Rajapaksa was chosen by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to run against Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Prime Minister and Opposition Leader. Wickremesinghe was the leader of the United National Party in the presidential election held on 17 November 2005. Despite the huge election campaign led by the UNP, Mahinda Rajapaksa was able to gain a narrow victory, by 190,000 votes. Rajapaksa's opponents claimed that he won only because the LTTE called for Tamil voters to boycott the polls. Most voters in these areas were forcibly restrained from voting, and it is said that they would have favoured Wickremesinghe of the UNP party.<ref name="bbc-11/18/05"></ref> Rajapaksa received 50.3% of the vote.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: After becoming President of Sri Lanka, Rajapaksa reshuffled the cabinet and took the portfolios of Defense and Finance in the new cabinet, which was sworn in on 23 November 2005. Immediately following his election in 2005, Rajapaksa extended the term of the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army, Sarath Fonseka, less than 30 days before he was scheduled to retire. Over the next three and a half years, Fonseka and Rajapaksa's brother, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, led the country's armed forces in their battle against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers), ultimately defeating the Tigers and killing their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Although styling himself as a man of peace and a willing negotiator, Rajapaksa signalled his intention to end the peace process once in power by allying with the Sinhalese nationalist parties, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and Jathika Hela Urumaya. The JVP had opposed the original 2002 peace process as treasonous.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: The agreement made with Rajapaksa included provisions that called for a revision of the ceasefire agreement to give the military broader powers against the LTTE, as well as ruling out any devolution of power to the Tamil people. Furthermore, the cessation of aid to the tsunami-damaged LTTE-occupied areas, and the sidelining of the Norwegian facilitators due to their alleged bias were included.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Immediately following his election victory, a series of mine blasts blamed on the LTTE claimed the lives of many off-duty servicemen and civilians, pushing the country back to the brink of civil war. Following the closure by the LTTE of the Mavil Aru reservoir supplying water to 15,000 people in government-controlled areas on 21 July 2006, the Sri Lankan military launched an offensive against the LTTE, bringing the entire reservoir under government control. Further military engagements led to the LTTE being driven out of the entire Eastern Province of Sri Lanka and loss of 95% of the territory they had controlled. The Sri Lankan government declared total victory on 18 May 2009. On 19 May 2009, President Rajapaksa delivered a victory address to the Parliament and declared that Sri Lanka was liberated from terrorism.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Lasantha Wickrematunge alleged he was threatened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa with whom he had a close personal friendship with for over 20 years. Wickrematunge was allegedly abused in foul language in a telephone call According to Wickrematunge the President had threatened to “destroy him” over a publication in his newspaper involving First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa. Wickrematunge was detained briefly at Bandaranaike International Airport on 21 February 2006 as he arrived for a flight to Geneva. Airport officials had claimed that Wickrematunge required "special permission" to leave Sri Lanka.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: After Mahinda Rajapaksa's defeat at the presidential election in 2015, the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena reopened the investigation over allegations that former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ordered the assassination.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In 2010, WikiLeaks made public classified US messages sent during 2009 and 2010, stating that American diplomats, including the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Patricia A. Butenis, believed that Rajapaksa was responsible for massacres of Tamil civilians and captured LTTE fighters at the end of the war against the LTTE. The cables also stated that the responsibility for many of the alleged crimes rested with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa, his brothers, and General Fonseka.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In April 2011, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon published a report by an UN-appointed panel of experts, which concluded that as many as 40,000 people were killed in the final weeks of the war between the Tamil Tigers and the government forces. A number of foreign journalists and news teams, such as the UK's Channel Four News, have reported and filmed evidence of targeted shelling of civilians, executions, and atrocities. Dead female Tamil fighters appeared to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused, and murdered.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Following the end of the conflict, a rift emerged between Rajapaksa and Fonseka over reasons which are still disputed. On 15 November 2009, Rajapaksa ordered Fonseka to leave his post as Chief of the Defence Staff with immediate effect through a letter from his secretary. Fonseka then joined the opposition as the candidate against Rajapaksa in the 2010 Presidential election, which Rajapaksa won. Fonseka was subsequently sentenced to two years in jail for various offences by a court martial. President Rajapaksa signed documents for the release of Fonseka in May 2012.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: His presidency after ending the civil war in 2009 is known for initiating large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Colombo Lotus Tower, Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port, the Colombo Harbour South Container Terminal, the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, the Colombo–Katunayake Expressway, and the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Sri Lanka also rose into the "high" category of the Human Development Index during this time. Development projects included highways, roads, a Colombo beautification project, and rural infrastructure development. However, the roadway projects reportedly had extremely high costs and were suspected of corruption, and large Chinese loans tripled the country's foreign debt and created an economic crisis. Rajapaksa claimed that under his tenure, Sri Lanka started to experience rapid economic growth and that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate reached over 7%. However, these claims have been disputed, and after his terms in office ended, the successor government revealed that GDP growth was inflated by using the year 2002 as the base year. GDP growth for 2013 and 2014, which had been calculated at 7.2% and 7.4% using 2002 as the base year, was reduced to 3.4 and 4.5 percent, respectively.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: A forensic audit was launched, with International Monetary Fund help, on various projects initiated by Rajapaksa. The audit confirmed that Sri Lanka had additional liabilities of 1.3 trillion rupees (8.9 billion US dollars).


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa was accused of election fraud in relation to both of his previous presidential election runs. During the 2005 presidential election, opposition parties accused Rajapaksa of bribing the LTTE to dissuade people from voting in the northern and eastern provinces. Most voters in these areas were forcibly restrained from voting by the militant group and, according to observers, they would have favoured the opposition candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe. In the 2010 election, Rajapaksa was accused of manipulating election results using computers.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In the 2015 election, according to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry investigating irregularities into SriLankan Airlines, it was revealed that security officers and vehicles of the national carrier had been used in the Rajapaksa's 2015 presidential campaign. At the time, Nishantha Wickramasinghe, a brother-in-law of Rajapaksa, was also Chairman of SriLankan Airlines until Rajapaksa lost the presidential election in 2015.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Capitalizing on the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in May 2009, coming off an election win in January 2010, and with the near-collapse of the opposition United National Party, President Rajapaksa rallied more than the two-thirds majority in Parliament necessary to pass an amendment to the constitution removing presidential term limits. On 9 September 2010, Parliament passed the amendment to remove presidential term limits from the Constitution. This amendment allowed Rajapaksa to run for a third term and cement his grip on power. The move came just a day after the Supreme Court ruled that a referendum was not required to make the change. The amendment had consequences beyond just term limits, including provisions that increased the president's power to act without oversight, removing an independent advisory council that the president was previously required to consult before appointing people to important non-partisan posts, such as Supreme Court judges and members of the human rights and electoral commissions. A Parliamentary Council without veto power and with only two opposition members was created in its place.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In a move that was widely seen as solidifying his control over the Supreme Court, Rajapaksa removed chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake from office in January 2013, allowing Rajapaksa to appoint an ally and legal adviser, former Attorney General Mohan Peiris, as Chief Justice. In November 2014, the Supreme Court dismissed legal objections regarding President Rajapaksa's eligibility to seek a third term.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Two years ahead of schedule, in November 2014, Rajapaksa signed an official proclamation confirming that he would seek re-election for a third term, after being unanimously endorsed by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Though his second term officially was to end in November 2016, he could legally seek re-election after completing four years in office, a marker he passed on 19 November.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In the run-up to the election, several people had been suggested for nomination as the common opposition candidate: former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, UNP Leadership Council Chairman Karu Jayasuriya, former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, and leader of the National Movement for Social Justice Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero. However, on 21 November 2014, after the election had been called, Maithripala Sirisena was announced as the common opposition candidate by the UNP. Sirisena had been Minister of Health in Rajapaksa's government and general secretary of the SLFP before defecting to the opposition coalition. Sirisena immediately received the support of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and several UPFA MPs that had defected alongside him (Duminda Dissanayake, M. K. D. S. Gunawardena, Wasantha Senanayake, Rajitha Senaratne, and Rajiva Wijesinha). Sirisena and the other UPFA MPs were stripped of their ministerial positions and expelled from the SLFP.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa received the backing of a number of small constituent parties of the UPFA, including the Ceylon Workers' Congress, Communist Party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), the National Freedom Front, the National Union of Workers, and the Up-Country People's Front. On nomination day, 8 December 2014, two opposition MPs, Tissa Attanayake and Jayantha Ketagoda, defected to the government to support Rajapaksa. Attanayake was later appointed Minister of Health, the post previously held by Sirisena. Rajapaksa also received support from the Buddhist extremist group Bodu Bala Sena.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: However, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party withdrew from the UPFA government on 18 November 2014, citing Rajapaksa's refusal to reform the executive presidency and enact reforms to promote accountability. After much hesitation, the All Ceylon Muslim Congress and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress also withdrew from the UPFA government, on 22 and 28 December 2014 respectively, blaming the government's failure to protect Sri Lankan Muslims from Sinhalese Buddhist extremists.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa released his manifesto, titled "Mahinda's Vision — The World Winning Path", on 23 December 2014 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall. The manifesto pledged to introduce a new constitution within one year of being elected, but not to abolish the executive presidency — it would be amended and the "weakness" in the parliamentary system eliminated. A naval force and a special security force would be set up, with the help of the army, to tackle drug trafficking and other organised crime. The manifesto also pledged to establish a transparent judicial inquiry into the alleged war crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War, but Rajapaksa had refused to co-operate with the UN investigation.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In the presidential election of 8 January 2015, Rajapaksa was defeated by his ex-aide Maithripala Sirisena, winning only 47.6% of the vote. Many had accused Rajapaksa of authoritarianism, nepotism, poor governance, and corruption.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In June 2018, "The New York Times" reported that President Rajapaksa, during the 2015 presidential campaign and elections, received large payments from a Chinese port construction fund that flowed directly to campaign aides and activities. Rajapaksa had agreed to Chinese terms and was seen as an important ally in China's efforts to tilt influence away from India in South Asia. The payments were confirmed by documents and checks detailed in a government investigation report obtained by "The New York Times".


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: During the final months of the election, the ambassador of China to Sri Lanka had lobbied voters, "even caddies at Colombo's premier golf course", to support Rajapaksa over the opposition, which was threatening to tear up economic agreements with the Chinese government.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: With the election coming around, large payments started to flow toward the president's circle. Affiliates of Rajapaksa's campaign received at least $7.6 million that was dispensed from China Harbor's account at Standard Chartered Bank. A sum of around $3.7 million was distributed in checks with ten days to go before polls opened, including $678,000 to print campaign t-shirts and other promotional material, and $297,000 to buy supporters' gifts, including women's saris. $38,000 was paid to a popular Buddhist monk who was supporting the Rajapaksa campaign, while two checks totalling $1.7 million were delivered by volunteers to Temple Trees. A subaccount controlled by China Harbor, called "HPDP Phase 2", shorthand for Hambantota Port Development Project, was the source of most of the payments.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa responded in the "Colombo Telegraph" by calling the article "part of a political mudslinging campaign".


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In July 2018, a joint Chinese-Sri Lankan company, Colombo International Container Terminals Limited (CICT), confirmed paying nearly 20 million Sri Lankan rupees as a donation to the Pushpa Rajapaksa Foundation, a private fund meant to build houses for the poor. Pushpa Rajapaksa is Mahinda Rajapaksa's sister-in-law, wife of his brother, Basil Rajapaksa, who was also his economic development minister. CICT did not say how the money was used.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: According to Sri Lankan MP Athuraliye Rathana Thero, Rajapaksa attempted a coup d'état hours after the announcement of the election results, in order to remain in power, but the Army Chief, Jagath Jayasuriya, disobeyed the orders. According to MPs Rajitha Senaratne and Mangala Samaraweera, before going to the Army Chief, Rajapaksa had earlier instructed the Attorney General to prepare the necessary documentation for the issuance of a State of Emergency, but the Attorney General had refused. Rajapaksa subsequently accepted defeat and left the Temple Trees, the official residence of president, with the control of the government peacefully transferring to Maithripala Sirisena.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: The Sirisena government launched a probe into the alleged coup by Rajapaksa. The government argued that Rajapaksa attempted to seize the poll-counting centres when he realised that he was losing the election. One of the witnesses, the Attorney General, described to the Criminal Investigation Department the coup attempt made by Rajapaksa. The Attorney General said that he had refused to act on behalf of Rajapaksa. Former army chief General Sarath Fonseka claimed that the Rajapaksa had moved about 2,000 troops into Colombo from the Northern Province three days before the election results were announced. The general claimed that the troops were ready take action on a coup.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: However, the cabinet spokesperson of the new government stated, during a press conference held on 24 March 2015, that there was no evidence to prove that such a coup was attempted on the night of the election. A spokesman for Rajapaksa has denied the allegations as baseless. The army and police also denied the allegations.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa unsuccessfully sought to become Prime Minister again, after losing his third-term presidential bid, in the 2015 parliamentary elections. The position of Prime Minister is largely that of a senior member of the cabinet who acts as a deputy to the President. The President directly appoints the Prime Minister, a person "who, in the President's opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of Parliament"; this is usually the leader of the party in power. Although Rajapaksa was elected as a Member of Parliament for Kurunegala with 423,529 preferential votes, his party was defeated in the election by Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party; Wickremesinghe was appointed as Prime Minister.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa returned to Parliament after his tenure as president, the only former president to do so. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Kurunegala District.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: On 23 January 2015, The Seychelles government announced that it would assist the Sri Lankan government in their search for funds that were allegedly transferred by the Rajapaksa regime into Port Victoria offshore bank accounts. In February, India announced that it would assist the Sri Lankan government in tracing billions of dollars that were allegedly deposited into overseas bank accounts belonging to Rajapaksa and associates. The government sought help from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in locating this hidden wealth to expose the alleged corruption of the previous regime.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: On 7 May 2015, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera received intelligence reports from four foreign nations that involved tracing billions of dollars stashed abroad, stating that the Rajapaksa family holds $18 billion (approximate Rs. 238,000,000,000) worth of assets in foreign countries. Minister Samaraweera didn't mention the names of the countries that were involved in this investigation. The government asserted that they had traced only $2 billion and were seeking access to a bank account that was held by the Rajapaksa family; Minister Samaraweera stated that it would not be an easy task to retrieve the assets held by the Rajapaksa family abroad, and was willing to go after those belonging to the state.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: In 2016, Rajapaksa loyalists created the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party in an attempt to split with the SLFP. While Rajapaksa is not officially the leader of the party, the inaugural meeting was held in his political office which had a 15-foot cut-out of Rajapaksa smiling and surrounded by school children. In the courtyard was a banner of similar size showing golden rice fields and Rajapaksa's smiling face at its centre.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Rajapaksa adopted a more anti-China policy, opposing major development projects such as the Southern Economic Development Zone, in which China planned to invest over US$5 billion. During the opening ceremony, protesters led by joint opposition MPs ignored a court order banning protests in the area and pelted stones at the event's participants, during which the Chinese envoy claimed that China will ignore "negative forces". Rajapaksa also changed his stance on private medical universities such as the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM); during his rule, SAITM was accepted with several concessions from the Board of Investment, and at the request of Rajapaksa, SAITM gave scholarships to students who gained 3As in advanced-level exams. Ten students were given each given Rs. 7 million scholarships by Rajapaksa himself. However, in 2017 he claimed that "there needs to be a standard. The law cannot interfere. If it happens, everyone in this country will try to become doctors," opposing the institution. In reply, Dr Neville Fernando, the chairman of SAITM, called him an opportunist, as the students to whom Rajapaksa had granted scholarships, were then in their final year.


title: Mahinda Rajapaksa

text: Mahinda Rajapaksa's proxy, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), won a landslide victory in the 2018 local authority elections. They were able to secure 239 local government bodies out of 340. The SLPP called for the resignation of the government and for fresh general elections to be held.