Seven years after coordinated suicide bombings tore through churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday 2019, a Colombo high court has delivered its verdicts — convicting 15 men and acquitting nine others in a trial that has become one of the most consequential legal proceedings in the country's post-war history. [1][2]
The Verdict and Sentences
Sri Lanka's High Court, sitting as a three-judge bench, handed down its decision on Tuesday following a five-year trial. [1] Fifteen defendants were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 200 to 260 years each. [2] The court also ordered the confiscation of all movable and immovable assets belonging to those convicted. [2]
Among those found guilty was Naufer Moulavi, whom prosecutors identified as the mastermind behind the suicide bombings. [2] The 25 men originally indicted — all from Sri Lanka's Muslim minority — had faced more than 23,000 combined charges, including murder and conspiracy to commit terrorism. [1][2] One defendant died in custody before the verdict, and the remaining 24 were brought to court handcuffed in pairs and transported in two prison buses. [2]
The charges against those convicted included murder and conspiracy to commit terrorism, with sentencing details confirmed by the AFP news agency. [1]
The Attacks and Their Toll
The Easter Sunday bombings on April 21, 2019, struck three churches and three luxury hotels in a coordinated assault that remains the deadliest attack in Sri Lanka since the end of its civil war in 2009. [2] The death toll, as reported across sources, ranged between 270 and 279 people, with more than 500 others injured. [1][2]
Most of those killed were Sri Lankan nationals, including many children. [2] Among the victims was celebrity chef Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter, an entire family of five, at least eight hotel staff members, and five members of the same family from the western city of Negombo. [2]
Forty-five foreign nationals were also killed, including 11 Indians, eight Britons, and five Americans. [2] Citizens of Australia, Bangladesh, China, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey were also among the dead. [2] Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen lost three of his children in the attack on the Shangri-La hotel, where his family had been holidaying. [2]
All of the bombers who carried out the attacks died in the blasts. [2]
Intelligence Failures and Political Accountability
The convictions arrive against a backdrop of unresolved questions about how the attacks were allowed to happen. In the immediate aftermath, Sri Lankan authorities acknowledged what they described as a "major intelligence lapse," and parliament heard that a tip-off from India about the planned attacks had not been properly shared with the relevant authorities. [2]
In 2023, the Supreme Court found former president Maithripala Sirisena personally responsible for national security failures that contributed to the bombings and ordered him to pay millions in compensation to victims. [2] Last month, two former senior officials were sentenced to death for criminal negligence — though death sentences in Sri Lanka are typically commuted to life imprisonment under a longstanding moratorium on executions. [2]
A Wider Investigation Still Unfolding
Tuesday's verdict does not close the legal chapter on the Easter attacks. A separate investigation is ongoing into former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay, who was arrested in February and is accused of orchestrating the bombings in coordination with Islamist extremists. [2] Sallay denies the allegations. [2]
Those accusations resonate with claims aired in a 2023 documentary by British broadcaster Channel 4, in which whistleblower testimony alleged that the attacks were deliberately allowed to proceed in order to boost the political fortunes of the Rajapaksa family, which dominated Sri Lankan politics for years. [2] Former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa — who was elected months after the 2019 attacks, partly on a platform of combating Islamist extremism — has denied any involvement. [2] Rajapaksa has been banned from leaving the country and has sought a court order to prevent his potential arrest in connection with the ongoing investigations. [2]
Justice Long Demanded
For years, Sri Lankans have held regular demonstrations calling for accountability over the Easter attacks. [2] Tuesday's convictions represent the most significant judicial outcome yet, though campaigners and victims' families are likely to keep pressure on authorities as the investigation into higher-level alleged complicity continues.
What to watch next: the sentencing phase for those convicted, the outcome of the investigation into Suresh Sallay, and whether the courts will move against any political figures linked to the alleged intelligence failures that preceded the bombings.