Colombo, Sri Lanka – A Sri Lankan High Court has convicted 15 men for their roles in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, sentencing each to 200 years in prison, effectively a life term, and ordering the confiscation of their assets. The three-judge panel delivered the verdict under stringent security, with hundreds of police officers deployed to safeguard the courthouse. The decision concludes a nearly five-year trial stemming from the attacks that claimed over 260 lives and injured approximately 500 individuals.
The coordinated April 21, 2019, attacks targeted three churches during morning services and three upscale hotels during holiday celebrations, all inspired by the Daesh group. All convicted individuals were members of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority community. Authorities had previously filed 23,270 charges against 24 suspects in 2021, accusing them of involvement in planning or supporting the operations under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
None of those directly involved in executing the bombings remain alive. The Catholic Church has publicly stated, without evidence, that the convicted individuals may not be the primary perpetrators, suggesting a broader conspiracy. A parliamentary investigation revealed that security officials ignored multiple intelligence warnings prior to the attacks.
In a related development, a former police chief and ex-defense ministry official were sentenced to death in July for their failure to respond to foreign intelligence alerts. However, since Sri Lanka has not conducted executions since 1976, these sentences will result in life imprisonment. Allegations emerged post-bombings linking the attackers to state intelligence services, which the Defense Ministry has categorically denied.
Police arrested Suresh Salley, a former military intelligence chief and retired army general, in February, alleging he possessed prior knowledge of the attacks and actively aided their execution. Salley, a key figure in ending the country’s 26-year civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, remains in custody amid these accusations.
The bombings profoundly impacted Sri Lanka, evoking traumatic memories of its decades-long ethnic conflict with the Tamil Tigers and underscoring ongoing challenges in national security and intercommunal reconciliation.
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