COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka has hired two hangmen as it prepares for executions of four prisoners convicted of drug offences in what would be the country’s first use of the death penalty for over 40 years, prison authorities said on Friday.
The Prisons Department began the recruitment process in March after the last hangman quit in 2014, citing stress after seeing the gallows for the first time. Another, hired last year, never turned up for work.
President Maithripala Sirisena announced on Wednesday an end to a moratorium on the death penalty in force since 1976, a move political analysts said was meant to boost his chances of re-election if he stands again later this year.Read More….http://www.msn.com/en-xl/asia/srilanka/sri-lanka-picks-two-hangmen-for-first-prisoner-executions-since-1970s/ar-AADzvN7?li=BBKxOeO&ocid=spartanntp