COLOMBO: Embassies of the European Union member states and the government of Canada warned Sri Lanka on Monday against ending its 42-year moratorium on capital punishment and said the island risked losing trade concessions if it went ahead.
They wrote a letter to Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena that they fully oppose the recent statement by him that he will reinstate the death penalty.
The diplomatic missions said that they were writing to “verify the worrying information in the public domain about the intention of the Sri Lankan government to resume implementing the death penalty after a moratorium of more than 40 years.”
They made it known that they “strongly and unequivocally oppose capital punishment in all circumstances and in all cases.”
The letter said: “The death penalty is incompatible with human dignity, does not have any proven deterrent effect, and allows judicial errors to become fatal and irreversible.”
The diplomatic missions called upon the president to maintain the moratorium on the implementation of the death penalty and to uphold Sri Lanka’s tradition of opposition to capital punishment.
Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2018
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.