Sri Lanka’s newly hired hangmen are “ready for the job,” said a prison official this week, as president Maithripala Sirisena vowed to press ahead with executions despite widespread international outcry.
Bandula Jayasinghe, an official at the Justice and Prison Reforms Ministry, told Arab News that the two executioners “have been fully trained”.
“Now they are ready for the job,” he said. “It’s good to keep their names secret so that the public and even their own family members don’t know they are hangmen.”
Arab News reports that up to 20 prisoners — eight Muslims, eight Tamils and four Sinhalese — could face the death penalty for alleged drug offences.
Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena remained staunch in his pledge to implement the death penalty. “I will not bow to local or international pressure to reverse my decision to execute these convicts. I know what my country needs and it has to be rid of people who destroy the country,” he said.
See more from Arab News here.
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