Sri Lanka Court to Deliver Verdict in Landmark Easter Attacks Case
Sri Lanka is set to conclude the trial of 24 men accused of plotting the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings on Tuesday, marking the first time anyone will be sentenced for direct involvement in the deadliest attack on civilians in the country’s history.
Suicide bombers struck three luxury hotels and three churches on April 21, 2019, killing 279 people, including 45 foreign nationals. Investigators have attributed the attack to a homegrown Islamist extremist group. Of the 25 men originally indicted, all from Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority, one died in custody, leaving 24 defendants to face trial. The hearing is scheduled to open at 9:30 a.m. at the High Court of Colombo, with police saying extraordinary security measures would be in place around the court complex given the intense public interest in the case.
The trial has already made legal history in Sri Lanka, with prosecutors filing 23,270 charges, the largest number ever brought in a single case, spanning murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism, and firearms and explosives offenses under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Prosecutors have named Mohamed Naufar as the alleged ringleader who supported the eight-member suicide squad behind the coordinated bombings. All defendants have denied involvement, and local media have reported that some could face the death penalty if convicted, though Sri Lanka hasn’t carried out an execution since 1976 and capital sentences are typically commuted to life imprisonment. The possibility of a death sentence drew renewed attention in July, when two security officials were separately sentenced to death for failing to prevent the attacks despite prior intelligence warnings.
Three of the defendants currently in Sri Lankan custody were also charged by US authorities in December 2020 with terrorism-related offenses tied to the bombings. Five Americans were among those killed, including a US Commerce Department employee who was in Colombo on official business, alongside victims from Australia, Bangladesh, China, Denmark, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkiye and Britain.
The trial has unfolded alongside a separate and far more sensitive investigation into allegations that elements within the Sri Lankan state may have had ties to those behind the attacks. Former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay remains in custody, accused of orchestrating the bombings, allegations he has denied. Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told parliament in June that investigators believe Sallay was the mastermind behind the attacks and had worked with extremists before they were carried out. According to court filings, investigators allege the network was cultivated to manufacture a security threat that would ultimately boost political support for the Rajapaksa family, which returned to power months after the attack when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president, with the goal of positioning Rajapaksa, a former defense chief credited by supporters with defeating Tamil separatist rebels in 2009, as the leader best equipped to restore order.
The Rajapaksa camp has firmly rejected any suggestion of state involvement in the bombings. Successive Rajapaksa administrations have acknowledged using militant groups as intelligence assets during Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, which ended in 2009, but supporters maintain that those same militants acted independently and betrayed their handlers in carrying out the 2019 attack.
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