Sri Lanka
Foreign Nationals and the Death Penalty
Death Penalty Overview
Amnesty International and the United
Nations High Commission for Human Rights,
estimate there were 1,284 people on death
row in Sri Lanka in December 2021.
Sri Lanka has the mandatory death penalty
for murder. Other capital offences include
treason, armed robbery, and certain crimes
committed with the use of a gun (including
rape, human traf cking, assault, kidnapping).
However, all the cases involving foreign
nationals were drug offences.
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Sri Lanka has not carried out executions since
1976. In 2019, citing the Filipino President
Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ policy as an
example, former President Maithripala
Sirisena announced his intention to resume
executions for drug traf cking. The
government hired two hangmen through
public advertisement and restored the
gallows in Colombo’s Welikada prison.
However, in a petition challenging this move,
the Supreme Court imposed a stay on the
President’s authorisation to resume
executions until the court delivered its
judgment on the matter. The new
government that came to power after
Sirisena has shown no further intention to
resume executions.
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka’s
(HRCSL) national study on prisons described
the living conditions of death row prisoners
as ‘inhumane’. The report states that death
row prisoners are kept in their cells for 23
hours a day and are not able to access
rehabilitation programmes like other
prisoners. An overwhelming majority of
prisoners are from marginalised groups, lack
adequate legal representation, and have
limited contact with family members. In July
2021, 150 death row prisoners in Welikada
prison held a hunger strike against their
living conditions and demanded pardons.
In October 2021, the Parliament passed a Bill
to prohibit the death penalty for persons who
were under the age of 18 at the time of the
offence. However, the government has not
declared that this will apply retrospectively,
meaning that currently there are still juveniles
who remain on death row.