Sri Lanka court convicts 15 men over deadly Easter Sunday bombings

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's High Court on Tuesday convicted 15 men who had been charged with plotting the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed 279 people and injured more than 500.

The three-judge bench found that 14 of the 24 men accused were guilty on all charges, which included murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism and possessing firearms and explosives under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

A 15th defendant was found guilty of only some of the charges, while nine others were acquitted.

The presiding judge told a packed court that sentencing would be done later on Tuesday. Dozens of police commandos provided security outside as the verdicts were read.

The men were accused of aiding and abetting the suicide bombers who struck three luxury hotels and three churches on April 21, 2019, killing 279 people, including 45 foreigners.

Those found guilty include Naufer Moulavi, who prosecutors said masterminded the suicide bombings. Nine other men were acquitted.

The co-ordinated blasts at three churches and three luxury hotels were the deadliest in Sri Lanka since the end of its civil war in 2009.

All the bombers who carried out the attacks died in the blasts. Investigators have previously blamed the bombings on extremists, and the 25 men indicted were from Sri Lanka's Muslim minority. One died in custody.

The accused, who had been charged with more than 23,000 offences, were handcuffed in pairs and brought to the High Court in the capital Colombo in two prison buses.

Most of those killed were Sri Lankans, many of whom were children.

They included celebrity chef Shantha Mayadunne and her daughter, an entire young family of five, at least eight members of staff from the hotels targeted and five members of the same family from the western Sri Lankan city of Negombo.

The foreigners who died included 11 Indians, eight Britons and five Americans.

Among the dead there were also citizens of Australia, Bangladesh, China, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

Three of Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen's children died in the attack on the Shangri-La hotel, while the family had been holidaying there.

In the wake of the attacks, Sri Lankan authorities pointed to a "major intelligence lapse". Its parliament heard that a tip-off from India about the attacks was not properly shared with the authorities.

In 2023, the Supreme Court ordered former president Maithripala Sirisena to pay millions in compensation to the victims of the bombings, after finding him responsible for national security failures that led to the attacks.

Last month, two former senior officials were sentenced to death for criminal negligence that led to the bombings. Death sentences are usually commuted to life in prison in Sri Lanka due to a decades-old moratorium on executions.

The verdict comes as a separate investigation into former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay is under way. Sallay is accused of orchestrating the bombings with Islamist extremists.

The allegations echo those aired in a 2023 documentary by British broadcaster Channel 4, which heard whistleblower testimony claiming the attacks were allowed to happen to boost the popularity of the Rajapaksa family, which long dominated Sri Lankan politics.

Sallay, who was arrested in February, denies the allegations. Former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was elected months after the 2019 attacks, with a campaign of tackling Islamist extremism has also denied the allegations.