A Sri Lankan court has sentenced former Inspector-General of Police Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando to death over their failure to prevent the devastating 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that claimed 279 lives.
The verdict was delivered on Friday by the country’s Permanent Trial-at-Bar, a special court that found both men guilty on multiple charges, including criminal negligence, murder, attempted murder and failing to act despite receiving prior intelligence warnings about the planned attacks.
The coordinated bombings, carried out on April 21, 2019, targeted three churches and three luxury hotels across Sri Lanka, leaving about 500 others injured. Many of the victims were members of the country’s Christian community.
The two former officials were acquitted of similar charges in 2022 by a three-judge High Court panel. However, the Supreme Court later ordered a fresh trial, which began in March this year.
Lawyers representing Jayasundara and Fernando had not commented on the latest ruling as of the time of filing this report.
Although Sri Lanka retains the death penalty, the country has maintained a long-standing moratorium on executions. In practice, death sentences are typically commuted to life imprisonment.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who assumed office in 2024, has pledged to ensure accountability for those found responsible for failures surrounding the Easter Sunday attacks.
The bombings remain the deadliest terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka’s recent history and exposed serious lapses in the country’s intelligence sharing and national security systems despite advance warnings received before the attacks.
