Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday hit out at President Maithripala Sirisena's statement to sanction death penalty for those running drug networks from prison.

Addressing a press conference in Colombo, Samaraweera said he did not approve of death penalty then, and does not approve of it now.

"Death penalty has nothing to do with reducing crimes as shown by statistics from some states of the US," he said. 

"What requires in Sri Lanka is proper law enforcement, not anything else," Samaraweera said. 

"If drug networks are being run from prisons, jailers should be held responsible," he added.