In a 76-page report titled ‘Death sentences and executions 2014’, AI says the number of reported death sentences in Sri Lanka during the year was 61.

They included juvenile offenders.

People continued to be sentenced to death or executed for crimes that did not involve intentional killing, and therefore did not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes”, as prescribed by Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The death penalty was imposed or implemented for drug-related offences in a number of countries, including China, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UAE and Viet Nam.

The Trincomalee High Court of Sri Lanka sentenced a man to death for a crime committed when he was 12 years old.

Juvenile offenders remained under sentence of death in Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The death penalty was imposed after unfair trials in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, North Korea, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam continued to sentence people to death for drug trafficking.

At least 61 people, including two women, were sentenced to death in Sri Lanka, mostly for murder.

At least 10 sentences were imposed for drug trafficking.

One man was sentenced to death in his absence.

On 7 February the Trincomalee High Court sentenced Thangarajah Sivakantharajah to death for a 1990 murder.

He was 14 years old when he was arrested in 1992 and 25 when he was released on bail in 2003, while still waiting for his trial to begin.

International law prohibits the imposition of the death penalty against people below the age of 18 when the crime was committed.

Five out of eight people sentenced to death for drug trafficking in the same case on 30 October were pardoned and returned to their country of origin, India.

The other three, all Sri Lankan nationals, remained under sentence of death. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka reported in July that 529 people were under sentence of death, 451 of whom still appealing against the sentence.