Sri Lanka’s Prison Department will be interviewing over 150 candidates to find two executioners, reports Colombo Page.
The death penalty has not been implemented since 1976. With 357 prisoners currently on death row, and 1164 since 2004, many have served over 15 years in prison just waiting for their sentences to be carried out.
The department is now faced with the challenging task of whittling down 178 eager candidates to fill just two roles – hangman and assistant.
The shortage of formal executioners on the island has of course never been of detriment to the Sri Lankan state, which has found itself sufficiently equipped to carry out extra-judicial killings and ‘mysterious’ white-van disappearances.
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