Colombo (LNW): 13 individuals were sentenced to death in two separate cases yesterday (27), despite no such executions being carried out since 1976.
Yesterday, the Colombo High Court sentenced five people to death for heroin trafficking, and the Kalutara High Court eight persons over a murder reported twenty years ago.
In the Colombo High Court case, the defendants were found guilty of transporting over 152 kilograms of heroin in a fishing vessel, which was intercepted by the Sri Lanka Navy off the coast of Ratmalana in 2019.
The verdict was produced by Justice Namal Ballale, stating that the charges filed by the Attorney General against the defendants had been proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
In the Kalutara High Court case, the suspects were found guilty of murdering a resident of Kalali Place in Kalutara by stabbing him with sharp weapons in 2003, and following a twenty year long trial, the suspects were found guilty and sentenced to death by Kalutara High Court Judge Pradeep Abeyratne.
