COLOMBO (UCAN): In a majority decision, a three-judge bench of the Colombo High Court in Sri Lanka sentenced two former security officials to death on July 31 for failing to prevent the 21 April 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, and injured 500 more.
The suicide bombings targeted three luxury hotels in Colombo, two Roman Catholic churches, and an evangelical Protestant church outside the capital.
Former police chief, Pujith, and former defence ministry secretary Hemasiri Fernando were found to have failed in their duty to stop the deadly attacks, which were attributed to a homegrown Islamist extremist group.
Sri Lanka has not carried out the death sentence since 1976, maintaining an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment.
The Straits Times reported on August 1 that their lawyer stated the 66-year-old Jayasundara and 77-year-old Fernando would appeal the conviction.
According to government figures shared with parliament in February, there are at least 800 people on death row, with sentences usually commuted to life imprisonment.
The July 31 judgement came after the state appealed against a 2022 decision that acquitted the two men. The court heard during proceedings that an Indian intelligence agency had alerted Sri Lanka on 4 April 2019 to a possible suicide attack by Islamist extremists, but authorities failed to take action.
Fernando and Jayasundara were arrested in 2019 and held in custody for four months before being released on bail. Under a previous civil action, they were ordered to pay 125 million rupees [around US$372,464] as damages to survivors of the attack.
Prosecutors had earlier told the high court that “negligence” by the two top officials amounted to “grave crimes against humanity” and brought murder charges against them.
Both men were eventually convicted of negligence leading to the deaths of 279 people.
Jayasundara and Fernando testified to a parliamentary inquiry that then-president, Maithripala Sirisena, failed to follow established protocols in assessing national security threats ahead of the bombings.
They also alleged that Sirisena—who was defence minister as well as law and order minister at the time—did not take the threats seriously.
In February, Sri Lanka’s Church leaders called for truth after investigators arrested former State Intelligence Service chief, retired Major General Suresh Sallay [Sunday Examiner, March 8].
“What we need is the truth behind the Easter attacks. We want to see justice for all the victims,” Church spokesperson, Father Cyril Gamini Fernando, said. Successive governments have previously been accused of failing to identify the masterminds behind the bombings.
