COLOMBO – Sri Lanka will soon resume executions after a 42-year moratoriumbut will send home five Pakistanis sentenced to death for drug smugglingfor execution in their home country, President Maithripala Sirisena said onWednesday.

The five are among 18 people, including a woman, on death row for drugoffences whose execution will go ahead, according to Sirisena. He did notgive a date for the first hanging.

“I am determined to carry out the death penalty for serious drug offendersand I will start with a list (of 18) given to me by the prisons,” he told apublic meeting in the north of the country.

Sirisena said he would hold talks with new Prime Minister Imran Khan onrepatriating the condemned Pakistanis and having them executed there. Hegave no further details on the feasibility of such a move.

International rights groups and the European Union have asked Sri Lanka toreconsider since Sirisena announced last month that he wanted to end themoratorium on hanging.

Police believe the Indian Ocean island is being used as a transit point bydrug traffickers. More than a tonne of cocaine seized in recent years wasdestroyed by police in January.

Official figures show there were 373 convicts on death row in Sri Lanka,including the 18 drug offenders, as of last month.

Death sentences are still passed for crimes including murder, rape anddrug-related offences but the last execution was in 1976.

Nearly 900 people are in prison after being sentenced to death, althoughmany have had their sentences commuted to life or are appealing. – APP/AFP