COLOMBO, A Sri Lankan High Court has sentenced former Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara to death after finding him guilty of criminal negligence over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which claimed the lives of more than 260 people and injured hundreds more.
The court ruled that Jayasundara failed to act on repeated intelligence warnings ahead of the coordinated terrorist attacks, allowing the devastating bombings to take place.
Although the court imposed the death penalty, executions are highly unlikely in Sri Lanka. The country has maintained an informal moratorium on capital punishment since 1976, meaning death sentences are generally commuted to life imprisonment.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has publicly supported continuing the long-standing suspension of executions.
The Easter Sunday attacks, inspired by Daesh (ISIS) ideology, were carried out almost simultaneously at three churches—including two Catholic churches and one Protestant church—and three luxury hotels frequented by foreign tourists.
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More than 260 people were killed, including 42 foreign nationals, making it one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka’s history.
A parliamentary investigation previously concluded that police and intelligence agencies had received multiple warnings before the attacks but failed to take adequate preventive action.
The High Court found Jayasundara criminally responsible for negligence linked to those failures.
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He has the legal right to appeal the verdict.
The court is also expected to issue a separate verdict against Hemasiri Fernando, the former Secretary of the Ministry of Defence, who faces similar charges related to the attacks.
Sri Lankan authorities blamed two local extremist groups for carrying out the bombings. Most of the attackers died during the coordinated suicide attacks, while separate trials continue against individuals accused of assisting or supporting the plot.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has repeatedly argued that those prosecuted so far were not the true masterminds and has called for a deeper investigation into what it believes was a broader conspiracy behind the attacks.
