A Sri Lankan court has sentenced 15 men to terms of at least 200 years in prison for their roles in helping organize the deadly 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that targeted churches and hotels across the country.
The three-judge High Court panel delivered the verdict on September 22 after a trial that lasted more than five years. The court also ordered the confiscation of the convicted men’s property and assets, while nine other defendants were acquitted.
The April 21, 2019 attacks struck three churches and three hotels during Easter celebrations. AsiaOne reported 267 deaths, while other current reports cite different totals depending on how later deaths are counted. The attacks also injured hundreds of people, including dozens of foreign nationals.
The convicted men were found guilty of offenses including murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism, and violations involving firearms and explosives. Prosecutors had filed 23,270 charges against 24 suspects in 2021, making the case one of the largest terrorism prosecutions in Sri Lanka.
The bombings were attributed to Sri Lanka-based Islamist militant groups inspired by the Islamic State. The individuals who directly carried out the suicide attacks were killed in the bombings, meaning the latest convictions involve people accused of supporting or helping organize the attacks rather than the suicide bombers themselves.
The verdict comes amid continuing questions about whether authorities acted on intelligence warnings before the attacks. A parliamentary inquiry previously found failures by police and intelligence officials to respond adequately to warnings of a possible attack. In July, a former police chief and a former senior defense official were sentenced to death for failing to act on such warnings.
Separate allegations of possible links between state intelligence figures and the bombing network are also being investigated. Former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay was arrested in February and remains in custody; authorities have accused him of having prior knowledge of the attacks and conspiring in them, allegations he denies.
The convictions mark a major development in the long-running legal response to the Easter bombings, while separate investigations continue into whether there were additional actors or failures surrounding the attacks.
