Sri Lankan Court Hands 220-Year Prison Terms to 15 Men Over 2019 Easter Bombings

Fifteen men convicted for their roles in the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb blasts in Sri Lanka have been handed 220-year prison terms by a local court. A defence lawyer stated on Wednesday that all 15 convicts will challenge their sentences in the Supreme Court. The ruling arrived a day after a three-judge bench at the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar delivered its verdict on the attacks, which resulted in 279 deaths. During the trial, the judges concluded that 14 of the defendants were accountable for every charge against them, whereas a 15th defendant was found culpable on only a portion of the charges. Meanwhile, nine other individuals facing charges were set free and acquitted. Alongside the prison terms, the court directed the state to seize all movable and immovable assets belonging to the convicts. The prosecution of the case involved 24 indicted individuals following the death of one original defendant, out of an initial 25 people charged. The massive legal proceedings involved 2,309 prosecution witnesses and a total of 23,270 charges brought against the accused. The 2019 attacks were carried out by nine suicide bombers belonging to the National Thawheed Jamaat, a local group linked to ISIS. The coordinated blasts struck three Catholic churches and three luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, leaving nearly 270 people dead—including 11 Indian nationals—and over 500 injured. Father Jude Krishantha, a spokesperson for the Catholic Church, voiced support for the judgment and stated that it provided a feeling of justice to the families of the victims. In a separate legal development this July, former police chief Pujith Jayasundara and former defence ministry official Hemasiri Fernando received death sentences for not acting on early intelligence warnings that could have stopped the tragedy.