Former police chief and defence secretary sentenced to death over Easter Sunday attacks

Sri Lankas former inspector general of police, Pujith Jayasundara, and former defence secretary, Hemasiri Fernando, have been sentenced to death over their failure to act on intelligence warnings ahead of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, in one of the most significant judicial reckonings to arise from the attacks that killed more than 260 people.

The Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar delivered the two verdicts on Friday by a majority decision. Judges Priyantha Liyanage and Thilakaratne Bandara found each man guilty on 854 of the 855 charges against him, including criminal negligence, dereliction of duty and aiding and abetting deaths, while the third judge, Viraj Weerasuriya, dissented, holding that the prosecution had not proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and acquitting the accused.

The presiding judge said intelligence had been received in advance that suicide attacks were planned against Catholic churches and tourist hotels in Colombo and its suburbs on Easter Sunday, but that no effective action had been taken to prevent them.

"As the officer appointed by the State to prevent crime, he failed in his duty," the court observed.

On the evening of 20 April 2019, the then head of the State Intelligence Service, Nilantha Jayawardena, had passed a warning to the officials that suicide attacks were planned for the following day, the court found. Advance intelligence had also been received from Indian agencies.

Jayasundara, who served as Sri Lankas 34th inspector general from 2016 until he was placed on compulsory leave after the attacks, and Fernando were initially acquitted by the Trial-at-Bar in February 2022, without being called to present a defence. The Attorney General appealed, and the Supreme Court held that the acquittal was contrary to law and ordered the trial to resume. Both men have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court.

In practice, neither is likely to be executed. Sri Lanka has maintained an informal moratorium on the death penalty since 1976, with sentences routinely commuted to life imprisonment and around 800 people held on death row. Sri Lankas current president Anura Kumara Dissanayake supports maintaining the moratorium. Jayasundara had also been held civilly liable, ordered by the Supreme Court in January 2023 to personally pay 75 million rupees in compensation to victims, which he paid.

The suicide bombings on 21 April 2019 struck three churches and three luxury hotels, killing more than 260 people, including more than 40 foreign nationals, and injuring hundreds. They were carried out by a local Islamist group, the National Thowheeth Jamath, with the Islamic State claiming involvement.

The attacks triggered waves of anti-Muslim violence and years of contested inquiries. A parliamentary committee found that police and intelligence officials had failed to act on repeated warnings. Jayasundara and Fernando testified that the then president, Maithripala Sirisena, who also held the defence and law and order portfolios, had not followed established protocols or taken the threats seriously. Jayawardena, the former intelligence chief, was later arrested, and investigations have continued into allegations of intelligence complicity and a wider conspiracy, with the Catholic Church, led by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, demanding a full account of who enabled the attacks.