OMM Redaksiyası
A Sri Lankan court is due to deliver verdicts on Naufer Moulavi, accused of masterminding the Easter Sunday bombings that killed 270 people and injured more than 500 in 2019, according to the BBC.
Verdicts are also expected for 23 other defendants accused of involvement in planning and carrying out the coordinated suicide attacks. The bombings targeted churches holding Easter services and three luxury hotels, becoming Sri Lanka’s deadliest attack since the end of its civil war in 2009.
Defendants face thousands of charges
Those on trial include associates and relatives of nine suicide bombers. Together, they face more than 23,000 charges, including murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism and illegal possession of firearms.
Prosecutors identified Moulavi as the main organiser and submitted what they described as a voluntary confession in which he admitted his role. The court accepted the confession, but Moulavi later told the three-judge panel that he had not been shown what he was signing and denied the allegations.
More than 2,300 people testified for the prosecution, while 2,076 pieces of evidence were submitted, including explosives, swords and firearms.
Questions over security failures
Following the attacks, Sri Lankan authorities acknowledged a “major intelligence lapse”. Parliament heard that a warning from India about the planned attacks had not been properly shared with officials.
In 2023, the Supreme Court ordered former President Maithripala Sirisena to pay millions in compensation to victims after ruling that he was responsible for national security failures that contributed to the bombings.
Last month, two former senior officials were sentenced to death for criminal negligence linked to the attacks. In practice, death sentences in Sri Lanka are generally commuted to life imprisonment because of a decades-old moratorium on executions.
Separate investigation into former intelligence chief
The verdicts come as a separate investigation continues into former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay, who is accused of orchestrating the bombings with Islamist extremists. Sallay, arrested in February, denies the allegations.
The claims echo allegations made in a 2023 documentary by Britain’s Channel 4. The programme included testimony from a whistleblower who alleged that the attacks had been allowed to happen to increase the popularity of the Rajapaksa family, which dominated Sri Lankan politics for years.
Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, elected several months after the attacks on a platform focused on combating Islamist extremism, has also denied the allegations. He has been barred from leaving the country and has asked a court to prevent his possible arrest in connection with the ongoing investigations.
For years, families of the victims and other Sri Lankans have held regular demonstrations demanding accountability and justice.
