Sri Lanka President accuses intl. organisations of interfering with death penalty issue

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Monday accused some international organisations including European Union (EU) of interfering with Sri Lanka on the death penalty issue.

Speaking at an event to mark the end of the  national drug prevention week in Colombo, the President said that the EU has threatened to withdraw the EU GSP plus trade concession if Sri Lanka implements the death penalty. 

He said that no country can threaten Sri Lanka’s sovereignty using such trade concessions. The President strongly defended implementing the death penalty on serious offenders of illegal drug trafficking stating that the majority of the income from drug trafficking goes to nurturing international terrorism. He even asserted that international drug traffickers were behind the recent Easter Sunday attacks. 

Sirisena also criticised the government and the opposition for opposing it. His claims came as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe and leader of opposition Mahinda Rajapaksa along with several western nations and international organisations had opposed the President announcement for death penalty to four drug dealers.