Three persons sentenced to death in one day in Sri Lanka

(October 28, Colombo - Lanka Polity)A Sri Lankan judge yesterday sentenced three persons to death in three separate murder cases. The verdicts were delivered by High Court judge Menaka Wijesundara in Anuradhapura High Court, situated in the North Central Province, which is a rural farming area bordering to the former war zone.

Two of the convicted are ex-soldiers. Of them, one was found guilty for gunning down five persons including two Muslim women with an automatic rifle issued to him by the government.

These persons are to be hanged on a date fixed by the President. However, the death penalty is not enacted by the President of Sri Lanka. Over 250 condemned persons are in the death row in prisons with an uncertain future while the Buddhist clergy and politicians are urging the government to enact death penalty to curb the spate of violence in the country.

Justice and Law Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda recently said he would discuss the possibility of implementing the death penalty with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

On the same day the three death sentences were delivered, a woman was arrested in connection with brutally hacking to death her 27-year old daughter-in-law with five-month pregnancy in the Central Province Mathale district..