Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court on Friday suspended the president’s resumption of capital executions to combat drug trafficking, pending a decision on their constitutionality.
The South Asian island’s highest court has ruled that no executions should take place until it has ruled on an appeal against the reinstatement of the death penalty, which would end a 43-year moratorium. “The court will hear the case on 29 October and in the meantime the prison department has been asked not to apply any orders from the president to carry out executions,” a judicial source said.
Inspired by Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines, President Maithripala Sirisena sees the death penalty as a deterrent to drug trafficking, causing concern among human rights defenders and the international community. He last week signed the execution order for four drug traffickers on death row and said he expected the measure to be implemented “very soon.”
For M.A. Sumanthiran, a Sri Lankan parliamentarian and lawyer representing a death sentence, death by hanging constitutes a “cruel and degrading punishment” and violates the fundamental rights of the individual. “It is on this basis that we call on the judiciary to establish that the execution of the death penalty is a violation of the Constitution,” he said. Several other legal appeals against the return of the death penalty have been filed in the courts.
Sri Lanka has not hanged any prisoners since 1976. Criminals are regularly sentenced to death for murder, rape or drug-related crimes, but their sentences are commuted to life imprisonment. Sri Lanka’s last executioner retired in 2014, but authorities have just appointed two men to replace him but have kept their names secret as a security measure, according to prison sources. The two men have not yet been assigned a job, local media reported.
According to the presidency, Sri Lanka has 200,000 drug addicts and 60% of its 24,000 prisoners are on drug-related convictions.
