President Maithripala Sirisena says that he expects to implement capital punishment in Sri Lanka next year, if the Parliament gives consent. 

He stated that although parliament approval it is not required to implement capital punishment he intends to seek the opinion of the country’s legislators. 

The President’s comments, at an event in Galle today, comes amidst calls for the re-implementation of the death penalty in the wake of a five-year-old girl being sexually abused and strangled to death at Kotadeniyawa.

Sirisena stated that a number of people shocked by the tragic incident had requested him to implement the death penalty and that he is vested with the power to do so. 

The President pointed out that when a convicted person is sentenced to death by a court all he has to do is put his signature on it and that, however human rights groups intervene  on humanitarian grounds. 

However, he added that the necessity of such a punishment arises upon considering the incidents of rape and child abuse in the recent past. 

Sirisena said that even countries such as the U.S. and China are currently implementing capital punishment and that many a developed countries utilize the gallows, electric chairs and lethal injection to carry out the punishment.

Sri Lanka’s last judicial execution took place in 1976.