Sri Lanka’s ex-police chief, official get death over Easter attacks
Sri Lanka’s former police chief Pujith Jayasundera and the then top bureaucrat in the Ministry of Defence, Hemasiri Fernando, were sentenced to death on Friday over the 2019 Easter Sunday attack, which killed more than 270 people.
The High Court here found both of them guilty of criminal dereliction of duty for failing to act on prior intelligence that could have prevented the attacks.
The bombings were a series of coordinated suicide attacks on churches and luxury hotels which killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, on April 19, 2019.
Jayasundera and Fernando were arrested in 2019 and held in custody for four months before being released on bail.
They were indicted in November 2021 for their negligence of prior intelligence from Indian agencies that local jihadists were planning an attack.
However, in February 2022, the High Court acquitted the duo and dismissed all 855 charges against them.
In November 2024, the case was revived after a Supreme Court order, following an appeal by the attorney general against the High Court acquittal ruling. The attorney general said no defence witnesses were called at the previous hearing.
Reading the majority decision to convict Jayasundera, Justices Priyantha Liyanage and Thilakaratne Bandara said that due to negligence of intelligence information, 268 people died while 586 were left injured.
Jayasundera had failed in his duty to protect the lives of citizens and ensure public security, they said. Justice Viraj Weerasuriya of the three-member bench gave a dissenting ruling, acquitting both.
The then government under President Maithripala Sirisena was blamed for its inaction to prevent the attacks despite prior intelligence from India on the impending attack.
