A Sri Lankan court has sentenced former Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara and former Defense Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando to death after finding them guilty of criminal negligence for the Easter Sunday bombings that killed 260 people in 2019.

The verdict was delivered on Friday by a three-member High Court bench in a 2-1 decision, following a state appeal against a 2022 acquittal.

The coordinated bombings targeted three tourist hotels and three churches – two Catholic and one Protestant. A parliamentary committee found that police and intelligence officials failed to act on repeated warnings about the attacks.

Chaminda Athukorale, lawyer for the two men, said on Saturday they will appeal the ruling within two weeks. He noted that the dissenting judgment explains that the accused had no motive to kill and no links with the actual perpetrators.

During the proceedings, the court was told that an Indian intelligence agency had alerted Sri Lanka on April 4, 2019, to a possible suicide attack, but authorities failed to take action. Previously, a civil action had ordered Fernando and Jayasundara to pay 125 million rupees ($372,464) in damages to survivors.

Two Sri Lanka-based ISIL-inspired groups were accused of carrying out the Easter Sunday suicide bombings, and none of those believed to be directly involved are alive. Separate trials are ongoing for people allegedly connected with the perpetrators.

The attacks killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, and wounded more than 500 others. Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church has claimed that those identified so far are not the masterminds, suggesting a larger conspiracy.

A death penalty in Sri Lanka typically means life in prison due to a moratorium on executions since 1976. Current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake supports maintaining the moratorium. At least 800 people are on death row, with sentences usually commuted to life imprisonment.

Source: www.aljazeera.com