Sri Lanka: Sirisena Says Convicted Drug Lords Trafficking From Prisons To Be Hanged

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena said he will use his powers to place his signature to execute the death sentence on traffickers sentenced to death for drug offences. This will be enforced on convicts who continue to operate the drug racket from their prison cells.

“Although there are conflicting views about the death sentence in our Buddhist society in particular, if a society which listened and preached an overdose of religious discourses is going on the wrong direction, timely decisions should be taken to bring this menace under control,” the President said.

Sirisena said this participating in the inaugural ceremony of the Mathata Erehiwa Pasalen Javayak (thrust against drugs from the school) program held at the Getambe playground in Kandy last morning. This program is conducted countrywide jointly by the Education Ministry and the Presidential Task Force on Drug Prevention concurrent to the National Drug Control Programme.

Sirisena said whatever opponents said there had been a drastic reduction in crime and women abuse in the country during the last three and a half years.

Referring to the crime statistics report for the last 10 years since 2008 submitted to the National Security Council, Sirisena said bogus and cooked up reports in certain sections of the media about an increase in crime since the advent of this government were being used and dangled by certain sections to achieve petty political gain.