Committee to decide on commutation of death sentence

The Justice Ministry would be appointing a committee shortly to make recommendations on the commutation of the death sentence of some prisoners to life sentences, Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem said yesterday.

Minister Hakeem told Daily Mirror that this committee would be set up as soon as the observations made by the Prison Reforms Ministry were received by him.

At present there were around 350 prisoners on the death row in Sri Lanka. However, capital punishment had not been served on anyone for more than 35 years.