Sri Lanka to resume executions within two months: President

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said on Wednesday that he will implement death penalty for drug dealers within three months, ending a 42-year moratorium on capital punishment in the country. Sirisena said that execution of drug convicts is a necessity in view of the fast spreading drug menace in the island nation.

"I will implement the death penalty during the next 2-3 months," he said while addressing the parliament. Sri Lanka's last hanging took place in June 1976. Since then successive presidents have refused to sign death warrants to hang convicts.

Sirisena took the decision despite Sri Lanka becoming party to a UN moratorium on death penalty in 2016. He said that his decision which was expressed last year could not be carried out due to bureaucratic lethargy and the links between officials and drug mafias.

Minister of Justice Thalatha Atukorale said last week that her ministry had forwarded details of the drug convicts to Sirisena's office last September. "She said there were 48 drug convicts on death row currently while 30 of them had appealed against sentencing and 18 of them could be hanged if the president so wished, she said.

Sirisena urged human rights groups not to stand in the way of his plans to execute drug traffickers. "I can't understand how the human rights organisations could oppose these moves," he said.

Sirisena made his first official visit to the Philippines last month and hailed the Philippine leader Duterte's anti-drugs campaign for which he has come under international condemnation.