Tue 23 November 2021:
The first of three trials in Sri Lanka related to explosions that killed over 270 people has begun.
Pujith Jayasundera, Sri Lanka’s former police chief, was charged with criminal negligence on Monday for failing to act despite prior intelligence warnings in the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attack, which killed over 270 people, including 11 Indians.
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According to lawyers, Jayasundera faces a total of 855 allegations of criminal negligence as the Sri Lankan High Court begins trial proceedings in the case, which has over 1,200 witnesses.
When the charges against Jayasundera were read out in court, he was present.
His attorneys argued that the former Inspector General was not guilty of disregarding prior intelligence. Hemasiri Fernando, the former defence secretary who was a prominent member of the defence ministry at the time of the attack in April 2019, is also facing similar allegations.
In connection with the matter, Jayasundera and Fernando were suspended from duty and arrested.
They were eventually released on bail.
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Both were charged with negligence by then-President Maithripala Sirisena for allegedly failing to intervene to prevent attacks despite having previous intelligence on the attacks.
Over 23,000 charges have been filed against suspects for conspiring, aiding, and abetting the attacks.
On April 21, 2019, nine suicide bombers from the local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ), which is affiliated to ISIS, carried off a series of deadly explosives that destroyed three churches and as many luxury hotels, killing approximately 270 people and injured over 500 more.
The incident sparked a political storm, with President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe being blamed for the attacks’ failure to prevent them despite prior intelligence being made available.
During his tenure, Sirisena formed a presidential panel to probe the attacks.
Sirisena, along with a slew of other key defense officials, including Fernando and Jayasundera, were found guilty of ignoring prior intelligence by the special presidential commission.
The panel’s report recommended that they be prosecuted. The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has expressed its displeasure with the government’s probe into the Easter Sunday terror incident.
It has urged that individuals implicated in the report face consequences for failing to prevent the attacks despite having prior intelligence.
On the same day that Jayasundera and Fernando were facing a series of allegations, Rev Father Cyril Gamini, a leading Catholic priest, went to the Criminal Investigation Department to record his statement.
He went to the CID for the third time since he had been asked to appear in front of them.
Gamini had filed a basic rights claim earlier this month, afraid of being arrested for questioning the role of Sri Lankan state intelligence operatives in the Easter massacre.
Members of the Catholic community organized protests on Sunday in honor of those who had died in the attack.
They urged the Sri Lankan government to guarantee that justice is served quickly and that trials are handled without undue political involvement.
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