EU puts a spoke in GoSL’s wheel

Judicial executions

By Shamindra Ferdinando-June 3, 2015

The European Union opposes Sri Lanka resuming judicial executions under any circumstances.

Well informed sources said that the EU had strongly advised successive governments against resumption of judicial executions and there was no change in that stance. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government, too, was also told to continue with moratorium on capital punishment, though the public pushed his government on the issue.

President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday said that those who had been found guilty of drug trafficking in the country should be given capital punishment. Addressing a gathering at the BMICH to mark international no-tobacco day, President Maithripala Sirisena said that he would seek public opinion before taking a decision.

Soon after the new administration took office in January, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe declared in Kandy that the new government wouldn’t hesitate to re-implement the death penalty to fight what he called a crime wave.

The declaration was made soon after he paid courtesy calls on Mahanayakes of Asgiriya and Malwatte chapters. However, there hadn’t been any further statements by government politicians until President Maithripala Sirisena proposed the death penalty for a specific offense.

The northern public as well as many others called for resumption of judicial executions in the wake of recent rape and murder of a Jaffna schoolgirl. Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Research Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle admitted that she wasn’t aware of an understanding between Sri Lanka and the EU as regards suspension of death penalty. The Island sought her comments in the wake she calling for death penalty for those responsible for the Jaffna schoolgirl’s killing. The deputy minister promised to raise the issue with relevant authorities.

Sri Lanka suspended judicial executions many years ago in accordance with an understanding with the EU.

Well informed sources told The Island that the then head of the European Union delegation in Colombo Bernard Savage in early November 2012 reiterated to the then Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem, the EU’s strong opposition to resumption of judicial executions.

The meeting took place in the wake of persistent calls for the resumption of judicial executions.

Sources said that SLMC leader Hakeem had assured Ambassador Savage that a committee headed by a retired High Court judge would be appointed to pave the way for death sentences to be commuted to prison terms.

Ambassador Savage, who had been also the top EU representative for the Maldives, pointedly told Minister Hakeem that Sri Lanka and the Maldives hadn’t carried out judicial executions since 1976 and 1953, respectively. Ambassador Savage had said that the EU expected the moratorium on the death penalty in Sri Lanka to remain.

Minister Hakeem said that Tissa Karaliyadda, Minister of Child Development and Women’s Affairs had urged the Justice Ministry to look in to the possibility of imposing capital punishment on those found guilty of child abuse.

Pakistan lifted moratorium on death penalty in the wake of a terrorist suicide attack on a school recently in spite of strong objections from the EU. Pakistan ignored EU’s demand to halt judicial executions. Pakistan suspended judicial executions in 2008.

During Chandrika Kumaratunga’s tenure as the president, she declared on Nov 20, 2004 that capital punishment would be implemented with immediate effect for rape, murder and narcotics-related cases. This followed a Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) call to implement the death penalty following the assassination of Colombo High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya. This was the BASL’s immediate response to Ambepitiya’s killing.

Kumaratunga on three separate occasions before the last Parliamentary Elections in April 2004 announced that she would resume judicial executions though her promise was never kept.

The Delegation for Relations with South Asia and SAARC of the European Parliament led by Gerard Collins, at the end of their six-day visit in March 2001 declared, "We urged President Kumaratunga to abandon the decision to resume judicial executions. We totally reject judicial killings.

The pledge to implement the death penalty in the aftermath of Ambepitiya’s assassination was the fourth instance since Parliament, in1995, adopted a private member’s motion by the then PA MP Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra calling for the immediate implementation of capital punishment. A few days later, the then Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris declared that there had been no firm decision on it.