Sri Lanka hires two new executioners after advertising job as 'light administrative work'

There are more than 1,000 people on death row in Sri Lanka but no one has been executed since 1976

Inmates at Sri Lanka's main jail look through the bars of their cells in Colombo, 4 May 2004 (AFP/Getty Images)

Sri Lanka’s government has hired two new executioners after advertising the job as “light administrative work only”.

The country has not executed anyone for almost 40 years but there are growing calls for death sentences to be carried out after a reported rise in rape, murder, child abuse and drug trafficking.

A hangman recruited last year quit his job after seeing the gallows for the first time during his training and finding replacements has proved difficult.

Sri Lanka has had a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 1976 but 1,116 convicts remain on death row, including hundreds going through the appeal process.

“It doesn't matter whether the government wants to execute or not,” Prisons Commissioner General Rohana Pushpakumara said.

“In the event the government wants to carry out executions, we should be prepared.”

Support for executions to resume has grown since the end of the country’s 26-year civil war in 2009 but the government has made no move to change its position.

Azzam Ameen, a BBC correspondent in Colombo reported that only 24 applicants applied for the job of hangman, with 14 attending an interview.

One told him: “Even if they want me to execute someone I am ready, but it looks unlikely.”

Additional reporting by Reuters