Sri Lanka advertises job vacancy for hangman
The ideal profile of the executioner candidates is: male, between 18 and 45 years, with high morality and mental strength. The executions for drug traffickers will resume within two months. In the island's prisons there are 1,300 sentenced to death, but only 48 sentences are linked to trafficking.
Colombo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Sri Lanka is looking for executioners to hang the condemned to death for drug related offences: This is the announcement that is read in the newspapers of the island, after President Maithripala Sirisena decided to resume executions - suspended for 43 years - only for drug traffickers. The search for the "ideal" candidates will have to take place rather quickly, since hangings - as the president has guaranteed - will resume within two months.
In the newspapers we read that the prison system is looking for two executioners, after the last executioner of the island was fired in 2014. Without ever hanging anyone, he retired from work alleging that his role had led him to suffer traumatic stress disorder.
According to the Daily News, which published the job advert, the monthly salary of the new state employee will be 36,310 rupees (180 euros). The candidate's ideal profile must meet the following requirements: male, between 18 and 45 years, with "excellent moral character" and "mental strength". Thushara Upuldeniya, head of the country's prisons, said that the interviews will take place next month.
In 1976, a moratorium on the death penalty entered into force in Sri Lanka. Since that year, 1,299 people were been sentenced to death. Hanging is foreseen for various crimes, such as drug trafficking, murder and rape. So far, however, the sentences have remained suspended and commuted to life in prison. Among these, only 48 are guilty of crimes related to trafficking; 30 of those charged have requested the revision of their sentence.
Sirisena’s decision, by his own admission, came after a visit to the Philippines last January, where he met Rodrigo Duterte. The Philippine president is "champion" of a fierce drug war that has so far caused about 5 thousand official deaths.
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23/02/2019 08:14
