Sri Lanka resumes death penalty for drug convicts

The Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena, will impose the death penalty on convicted drug traffickers within the next two months

This is after he vowed to free the country from the drug menace by 2020, local media reports said on Thursday.

Mr Sirisena informed the parliament on Wednesday that he was determined to impose capital punishment by hanging the convicted drug criminals as part of his anti-narcotics drive.

Sri Lanka’s justice minister, Thalatha Atukorale, informed the parliament on Tuesday that her ministry had complied with the president’s request to restart capital punishment.

Ms Atukorale added that five names of drug convicts had been sent to the president between October 12 and the end of January.

However, Mr Sirisena was yet to sign the warrants and fix the execution dates.

Although capital punishment is a legal penalty in Sri Lanka, there have been no executions carried out since 1976.

(Xinhua/NAN)

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