WEB DESK
Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam has informed the Sri Lanka Supreme Court that the incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe has decided not to sign the implementation of capital punishment given by any court in the island nation. Earlier in 2019, Sri Lanka had decided to sentence criminals involved in drug offences with death penalty and hired two hangmen in the same year. The last such execution in the island nation was in 1976.
According to the law, Sri Lanka’s president is required to authorize capital punishment for an execution to take place and executions must be carried out by hanging. According to the Prison Department, 93 persons were sentenced to death in 2020 while 144 persons were sentenced to death in the year 2019. As of September 2020, government records show that 1,284 persons remain on death row in Sri Lanka.