Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

Sri Lanka to interview for a new hangman next week

Sri Lanka announced that 20 applicants will be interviewed later this month, for the post of hangman at the Department of Prisons.

Prisons Commissioner Rohana Pushpakumara said that the interviews will be held next week and they would be assessing “psychological and physical fitness”.

Ahead of the interviews the gallows at the Welikada Prison were being refurbished reported Daily Mirror. The site, where the massacre of Tamil political prisoners took place during the 1983 Black July pogrom, is notorious for the endemic use of sexual violence and torture against Tamil detainees (See here and here).

The interviews were announced following Sri Lankan President Maithriapala Sirisena stating he is expecting to approve capital punishment on the island by next year.

His comments contradicted that of Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who told the UN Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka is would "maintain the moratorium on the death penalty with a view to its ultimate abolition".

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.