A former Defence Secretary and IGP have been sentenced to death for criminal negligence over the Easter Sunday attacks

Former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara were sentenced to death by the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar today for criminal negligence, dereliction of duty, and abetting murder over the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks.

In both cases, a majority of the three-judge bench found the accused guilty, with one judge dissenting and acquitting them in each case.

Each accused was found guilty on 854 of the 855 charges brought against him.

Context

The Easter Sunday attacks on April 21, 2019, killed 269 people, including at least 45 foreign nationals, and injured around 500 others in bombings across six locations in Colombo, Negombo, and Batticaloa.

The former Defence Secretary and former IGP were implicated in reports by a Special Investigation Board and a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) appointed in the aftermath of the 2019 terrorist attacks.

The primary allegation against them was that they failed to act on intelligence warnings of a possible extremist terrorist attack.

Inquiries

The Special Investigation Board, known as the Vijith Malalgoda Committee, was appointed on April 22, 2019, and submitted its report on June 10, 2019.

A Presidential Commission of Inquiry, known as the Janak de Silva Commission, was appointed on September 22, 2019, and handed its final report to the President on February 1, 2021.

While the Malalgoda report was never fully made public, the Janak de Silva Commission’s final report was partially released and explicitly implicated senior political and security leaders.

Findings

Both commissions concluded that the former Defence Secretary and former IGP received multiple specific intelligence warnings about the National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ), the group responsible for the attack, and its leader Zahran Hashim.

However, the commissions found that the officials failed to convene the National Security Council, issue urgent alerts, or ensure proper follow-up.

Based largely on these findings, the Attorney General filed indictments in October 2021 containing approximately 855 charges of criminal negligence against each of them.

Although they were initially acquitted by the High Court Trial-at-Bar in 2022, the Supreme Court set aside their acquittal in November 2024 and ordered the trial to resume.

Separately, on 12 January 2023, a seven-judge Supreme Court bench ruled on 12 Fundamental Rights petitions, ordering them and several other top officials, including former President Maithripala Sirisena, to compensate the victims.

Jayasundara was ordered to pay Rs. 75 million and Fernando Rs. 50 million, as part of a total victims’ compensation order of Rs. 310 million.