Sri Lanka: Supreme Court orders ex-president to pay 100 million rupees to victims of 2019 Easter bombings

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on January 12, 2023 ordered ex-president Maithripala Sirisena and four top former officials to pay a total of 310 million rupees as compensation to the victims of the 2019 Easter attack for their negligence in preventing the country's one of the worst terror strikes despite having credible intel of an imminent attack.

In its verdict, a seven-member bench of the apex court ruled that the respondents named in the petitions for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday attack had violated the fundamental rights of the petitioners.

The court ordered the then president Sirisena, who was also defence minister and commander in chief of the armed forces, to pay a compensation of 100 million rupees (USD 273,300) from his personal fund.

It also ordered former police chief Pujith Jayasundara and former state intelligence services chief Nilantha Jayawardene to pay a compensation of 75 million rupees (USD 204,975) each, former defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando to pay a compensation of 50 million rupees (USD 136,650) and former national intelligence service chief Sisira Mendis 10 million rupees (USD 27,330).

The court said top officials failed to act on the detailed intelligence information shared by India to avert the deadly suicide bombings.

They have been ordered to pay from their personal funds to the victim fund maintained by the office of reparations.

Nine suicide bombers belonging to local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three Catholic churches and as many luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing nearly 270 people, including 11 Indians, and injuring over 500.

(PTI)