Sri Lanka pushes ahead with a plan to reintroduce the death penalty for drug offences after the country's president said he wanted to resume hangings following a decades-long hiatus
A Sri Lankan job advert for hangmen has attracted more than 100 applicants, a prison service spokesman has revealed.
President Maithripala Sirisena said last year he wanted to resume hangings after a decades-long hiatus, and the government started advertising for executioners last month.
A newspaper ad called for applicants with "excellent moral character" and "mental strength".
Sri Lanka's last hangman quit in 2014 without ever having to execute anyone, citing stress after seeing the gallows for the first time.
Another hired last year never turned up for work.
Prison service spokesman Thushara Upuldeniya said 102 people had applied for the role, as the country pushes ahead with a plan to reintroduce the death penalty for drug offences.
One of the applicants was an American, it was said, but their application was rejected as foreigners are not eligible for the role.
The hardline policy is in part inspired by the Philippines' war on drugs, where thousands have died in encounters with police.
Drug trafficking is a capital offence, in Sri Lanka although no one has been executed for any crime in the country since 1976.
Thushara Upuldeniy previously told Reuters: "We never know if the government will resume the death penalty, but we want to hire two hangmen to fill vacancies and be ready if the government wants to execute drug traffickers."
The advertisement published in the state-run Daily News last month put the monthly pay at 36,310 rupees (£158), which would be above average for a government job.
Candidates should be Sri Lankan, male, and aged between 18 and 45.
Upuldeniya had said the job interviews will be conducted this month.
At least 25 people convicted for drugs offences, including two drug dealers, could be executed, Upuldeniya said.
There were also 436 people including six women on death row for various crimes including murder, he added.
Source: mirror.co.uk, Shihar AneezDanya Bazaraa, March 7, 2019
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