The
Ministry of Justice is to set up a Committee to review the sentences of
condemned prisoners with a view to commuting the sentences to life
imprisonment. The proposal to convert
the sentences of condemned prisoners to life imprisonment is under review, and
arrangements are being made to set up a panel of experts for the
committee. The committee will be chaired
by a retired Supreme Court Judge. A
three-member committee will be appointed by the Ministry of Justice will give
recommendations to a draft bill, to be implemented soon. This follows a request
made by the Prisons Department to the Justice Ministry last year, to consider
the possibility of rehabilitating the prisoners on death row. It is learnt that
since death row prisoners are not being hanged, their future is in limbo. Sri
Lanka stopped hanging condemned prisoners in 1976.
The
Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prisons Reforms
has submitted names for the three-member panel of experts for the
committee. He said the committee's recommendations will soon enable the
ministry to review the sentences of all condemned prisoners. There are 473
males and 20 female prisoners currently on death row in the Bogambara and
Welikada Prisons.
