Hangman vacancy at Prisons Dept. pops up again

With the work of the Committee appointed to consider ways and means to commute the death sentence of prisoners awaiting execution drawing to a close, the Prisons Department is once again searching for hangmen to fill the vacancies for the posts.

The Prisons Department last week said that it would once again advertise for the job of hangmen in the coming week.

Commissioner General M.B.R. Pushpakumara who denied that the decision to recruit hangmen is anyway connected to the committee report which is being planned to be handed over soon to President Maithripala Sirisena, said that the department will be calling for applications for the job this week as the job positions have been vacant for some time.

Mr. Pushpakumara said that applications will be called from Sri Lankan nationals who are willing to undergo training on the job and perform executions when called for. He said that the minimum educational requirement was schooling up to Grade 8 with applicants being below 45 years of age and in good health.

He said the recruits will be given two months training before confirming them on the job.

Last time when the vacancies were advertised in August 2012 two Australians were among the applicants. They were not considered as there was no provision in the Department to recruit foreigners. This time around too Commissioner Pushpakumara said that applications from foreigners will not be entertained.

In the past, three persons recruited had left their posts abruptly. In March 2014 the Department recruited a person for the job, but he quit the job in a week. It is learnt that he got cold feet when he was shown the gallows. Previously in March 2013, two men who were recruited also quit after two months on the job training.

It is learnt that the two men were attracted by the government job but were disgruntled soon because of the stigma attached to it. However, they had not performed any executions on the job. The last time Sri Lanka executed its death row prisoner was in 1976.

Recently President Maithripala Sirisena in an unexpected move conceded to the public that re-introducing capital punishment was the only deterrent to stem the increasing wave of crime related to drugs in the country.

Also the process to commute the sentence of condemned prisoners to life imprisonment is ongoing. The ten- member committee headed by retired Justice P. Edirisooriya is reviewing the files of condemned prisoners. According to prisons statistics there are 942 death row prisoners. Of this 342 persons including 11 females are awaiting execution and another 581 prisoners including 19 women are awaiting appeal at a higher court.

Although the committee started its work in October 2013 only around 200 cases have been reviewed so far. The Justice Ministry said that the process is slow because of the difficulty in getting the relevant files of prisoners from the