Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has ordered former President Maithiripala Sirisena and other Sri Lankan officials to pay Rs. 100 million into a compensation fund for the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and their families.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that former President Maithripala Sirisena, former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, former Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara, former National Intelligence Service Chief Sisira Mendis, and former State Intelligence Services Chief Nilantha Jayawardena had failed to prevent the bombings despite having credible information of an imment attack.
Accordingly, the Supreme Court ordered former President Maithripala Sirisena to pay Rs. 100 million in compensation to the petitioners, former IGP Pujith Jayasundara and the former State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Nilantha Jayawardena were each ordered to pay Rs. 75 million, former Defense Secretary Hemasiri Fernando was ordered to pay Rs. 50 million and former National Intelligence Director Sisira Mendis was ordered to pay Rs. 10 million from their personal money.
The verdict was issued after 12 petitions that were filed by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the families of the victims of the attacks, Catholic priests and several others were heard before a seven-member bench headed by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya.
On April 21 2019, a series of explosions targetted churches and luxury hotels in Colombo and Batticaloa. Hotels hit by explosions include the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand hotels and one other, all in Colombo. The three churches struck were the Catholic Shrine of St. Anthony in Kotahena, Colombo, the Catholic Church of St. Sebastian in Negombo and the Zion Church in Batticaloa. At least 45 foreign nationals were amongst the dead.
Though the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, with the lesser-known jihadist group National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) involved, it soon emerged that Sri Lankan intelligence services were aware that an attack was due to take place on Easter Sunday.
Read more here.
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