Sri Lanka Easter Sunday bombings case: verdict set for September 22
The Colombo High Court has fixed September 22 for its verdict in the main criminal case over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 279 people, including 45 foreign nationals.
The bombings were a series of coordinated suicide attacks on churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019.
Twenty-five people are accused in the case, facing a sweeping indictment of 23,270 charges, including conspiracy, aiding and abetting the attacks, collecting arms and ammunition, and attempted murder under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The three-judge Colombo Permanent Trial-at-Bar comprising Presiding Judge Navaratne Marasinghe, and Judges Sujeewa Nissanka and Ramanathan Kannan- announced the verdict date on Monday, after the defence concluded its case. Both prosecution and defence have been ordered to submit written submissions by September 8.
The prosecution finished presenting its evidence on August 13, with the defence beginning its case on August 17. Proceedings included 2,076 productions marked as evidence.
Mohammadu Ebrahim Mohammadu Naufer, alias Naufer Moulavi, is among the accused and has been linked to Zahran Hashim, leader of the local jihadist group National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ), which carried out the attacks. Hashim was one of the suicide bombers involved in the blast at the Shangri-La Hotel.
Earlier this month, former police chief Pujith Jayasundara and Hemasiri Fernando, the then-top bureaucrat in the Ministry of Defence, were sentenced to death after being found guilty of criminal negligence for failing to act on prior intelligence that could have prevented the attacks. A death sentence in Sri Lanka typically amounts to life imprisonment, as the country has maintained a moratorium on executions since 1976.
Former president Maithripala Sirisena and the country's top defence hierarchy were separately ordered to pay compensation, running into millions of rupees, to victims' families in fundamental rights petition rulings delivered in 2023.
