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A Sri Lankan court has sentenced two former senior security officials to death for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday bombing that killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners.
A three-judge bench, in a majority ruling on Friday, found former police chief Pujith Jayasundara and former defence ministry secretary Hemasiri Fernando responsible for failing to act on warnings about the attacks, which were carried out by a local Islamist extremist group.
Jayasundara, 66, and Fernando, 76, can appeal the verdict at the Supreme Court but were remanded in judicial custody pending bail.
Sri Lanka has not carried out an execution since 1976 and maintains an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty.
Government figures presented to parliament in February showed that at least 800 people were on death row, with death sentences typically commuted to life imprisonment.
The ruling by a special fast-track court followed a state appeal against a 2022 decision that acquitted the two officials.
During the proceedings, the court heard that an Indian intelligence agency had warned Sri Lankan authorities on April 4, 2019, about a possible suicide attack by Islamist extremists.
The authorities, however, failed to act on the warning.
The April 21 attacks targeted three churches and three hotels, killing 279 people and injuring more than 500 others.
Fernando and Jayasundara were arrested in 2019 and spent four months in custody before being released on bail.
In a separate civil case, they were ordered to pay 125 million Sri Lankan rupees, estimated at $372,464, in damages to survivors.
Prosecutors had argued that the officials’ negligence amounted to grave crimes against humanity and brought murder charges against them.
They were ultimately convicted of negligence leading to the deaths.
During a parliamentary inquiry, both men said then-President Maithripala Sirisena had failed to follow established procedures for assessing national security threats before the bombings.
They also alleged that Sirisena, who was simultaneously defence, law and order minister, failed to take the warnings seriously.
