After Sri Lanka's new executioner panicked upon seeing the country's gallows for the first time, he has since gone AWOL and has left the authorities hanging, the top prison official said on Tuesday.
Now, the country is searching for a new hangman after the latest recruit quit the job, Reuters reported.
Months after two hangmen chosen late last year failed to show up for work, the Prisons Department appointed the new hangman, the third most qualified from 176 applicants, last week.
Commissioner-General of Prisons Chandrarathna Pallegama said their new employee reported for duty earlier this month, but freaked out after seeing the execution site on Thursday, Agence France-Presse reported.
"We gave him one week's training, but he resigned after seeing the gallows, saying that he didn't want the job," Pallegama told Reuters. "He told me that after seeing the gallows he got upset... Next time, we will show the gallows to the new recruits before giving them basic training."
"Since then, he has not reported for work. I think we will have to look for a new hangman."
Pallegama said adding that the hangman was actually expected to execute light clerical work in the absence of capital punishment.
Despite the fact that there are at least 405 convicts on death row, the Indian Ocean island nation, a predominantly Buddhist country, has not carried out an execution since 1976.
After keeping the post of executioner vacant for decades, the new hired recruit was being paid $85 a month for the job, AFP reported.
Since the 25-year war against Tamil Tiger separatists ended in 2009, an alarming rise in child abuse, rapes, murders, and drug trafficking in the country has prompted some lawyers and politicians to push for the death penalty to be reintroduced.
"But, with this chap leaving, we are now in a quandary," Pallegama said. "In case the government resumes hanging, we won't be ready unless we can replace the hangman quickly."
