Justice Ministry urges referendum on death penalty

What we intend doing is suggest to the cabinet to sanction the re-imposition of capital punishment as a deterrent

The Justice Ministry will propose to the cabinet the holding of a referendum for the re-activation of the death penalty for those convicted of serious crimes, a senior ministry source said yesterday.

“What we intend doing is suggest to the cabinet to sanction the re-introduction of capital punishment as a deterrent to the increasing number of serious crimes in the country. Ministers are known to hold different views with regard to the re-imposition of the death penalty,” the source said.

He said the Justice Ministry had prepared a document on the merits and demerits of the death penalty while proposing that it be re-imposed in the case of premeditated murder for example the double killings at Kahawatta and Ratnapura and in cases of rape.

The Justice Ministry had prepared a document on the merits and demerits of the death penalty and proposed that it be re-imposed

The source said it would be up to the government to decide whether the death penalty should also apply retrospectively to the 379 convicts including two women now in death row. He said the re-imposition of the death penalty was not an easy exercise because of the series of formalities that had to be adhered to before the President signed the ‘Decree of Death’. “The High Court Judge who sentenced the convict to death has to issue a report and the Attorney General has to make his observations,” the source said.

Meanwhile, the Prisons Department held interviews to fill two vacancies for hangmen.

The source said Child Development and Women's Affairs Minister Tissa Karalliyadde had also highlighted the need to impose the maximum punishment for those found guilty of sexually abusing and raping women and children.

The death penalty was first introduced in 1815 at the time Sri Lanka was a British colony. It was abolished by the then Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranike in 1956. It was reintroduced after his assassination in 1959.

The United National Party (UNP) government which came to power in 1977 suspended capital punishment and introduced a clause to the 1978 constitution. It states that the death penalty be carried out with the sanction of the Justice Minister, Attorney General and the High Court Judge by whom the convict was sentenced to death.

No executions have taken place since 1976.