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Agence France-Presse

Sri Lanka’s High Court has found 15 of the 24 men accused of being directly involved in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings guilty.
The attacks killed 279 people and wounded around 500.
The three-judge bench found that 14 of the accused were guilty on all charges, which included murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism and possessing firearms and explosives under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
A 15th defendant was found guilty of only some of the charges, while nine others were acquitted.
The presiding judge on the three-judge bench told a packed court that sentencing would be done later on Tuesday.


Suicide bombers struck three luxury hotels and three churches on April 21, 2019, in the deadliest attack against civilians in the island’s history.
Forty-five foreigners were among the dead.
Investigators blamed the massacre on a home-grown Islamist extremist group.
One of the 25 men initially indicted – all of them from Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority – died in custody, leaving 24 defendants to stand trial.
Police said extraordinary security measures were in place around the court complex on Tuesday.
“Considering the interest in this case, we are making special security arrangements,” police said in a statement.

The trial made legal history in Sri Lanka, with prosecutors filing 23,270 charges, the highest number ever brought in a single case.
Prosecutors identified Mohamed Naufar as the alleged ringleader who provided support to the eight-member suicide squad that carried out the coordinated bombings.
All defendants denied involvement.
Local media had said earlier that if convicted, some could face the death penalty, even though Sri Lanka has not carried out an execution since 1976 and capital punishment is typically commuted to life imprisonment.

The prospect of capital punishment gained prominence in July when two security officials were sentenced to death in a separate case for failing to prevent the attacks despite intelligence warnings.
Three of the defendants were also charged by US authorities with terrorism-related offences linked to the bombings in December 2020.
Five Americans were among the dead, including a US Commerce Department employee who was in Colombo on official business.
Other foreigners killed included citizens of Australia, Bangladesh, China, Denmark, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Britain.
The trial unfolded against the backdrop of a separate and highly sensitive investigation into allegations that elements within the Sri Lankan state may have had links to those responsible for the attacks.

Former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay is in custody facing accusations that he orchestrated the bombings, allegations he denies.
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told parliament in June that investigators believed Sallay was the “mastermind” behind the attacks and had worked with Islamist extremists before the bombings were carried out.
Investigators allege the network was cultivated to manufacture a security threat that would in turn bolster political support for the Rajapaksa family, which returned to power several months after the attack with Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election as president.
According to court filings, investigators believe the objective was to create chaos and present Rajapaksa, a former defence chief credited by supporters with crushing Tamil separatist rebels in 2009, as the leader best placed to restore security.
The Rajapaksa camp, supporting the once powerful family that dominated Sri Lankan politics for nearly two decades, has rejected allegations of state involvement.
Successive Rajapaksa administrations have acknowledged using Islamist militants as intelligence assets during a decades-long civil war that ended in 2009.
But supporters maintain the militants had double-crossed their handlers and carried out the 2019 attack independently.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


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A police commando stands guard at the High Court in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Tuesday, ahead of a verdict related to the 2019 Easter bombings. Photo: AP

Police personnel escort a man accused of being involved in Sri Lanka’s 2019 Easter Sunday attacks to court in Colombo on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

The aftermath at a Colombo church on April 21, 2019, after a suicide bombing. Sri Lanka is set to conclude the trial of 24 men accused of plotting the Easter attacks that targeted churches and hotels. Photo: AFP

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Sri Lanka’s former police chief Pujith Jayasundara. File photo: AP

Sri Lankan police officers inspect the site of a fatal bombing at a hotel in Colombo in 2019. Photo: AP

A protester in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in April 2022 carries a large wooden cross demanding justice for victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday attack. Photo: EPA-EFE

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Sri Lankan police officers inspect the site of an explosion at the Shangri-la hotel in Colombo in 2019. Photo: AP

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Security personnel patrol outside St Anthony’s Church, one of the sites bombed on Easter Sunday. Photo: EPA

In this Friday, April 26, 2019, photo, Sri Lankan police officers show ISIS flag recovered from alleged hideout of militants, in Kalmunai, in Eastern Sri Lanka. Militants linked to Easter suicide bombings opened fire and set off explosives during a raid by Sri Lankan security forces on a house in the country's east. (AP Photo)

Clergymen visit the scene of a suicide bombing at St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, April 22, 2019. Easter Sunday bombings of churches, luxury hotels and other sites was Sri Lanka's deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

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CORRECTION - An image grab taken from a press release issued on April 23, 2019 by the Islamic State (IS) group's propaganda agency Amaq, allegedly shows eight men it said carried out a string of deadly suicide bomb blasts on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, lined up at an undisclosed location. The man in the centre is believed to be Zahran Hashim, who was identified by the Sri Lankan police as the leader of the Islamist National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) group, which Colombo has blamed for the attacks. - The Islamic State group claimed a series of bombings on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka that killed more than 320 people on April 21, and released the photo of the men it said were behind the "blessed attack", describing them as "fighters" from the terror network. The massive casualty toll would make the Easter attacks the deadliest overseas operation claimed by IS since the group proclaimed its worldwide caliphate in mid-2014. (Photo by HO / AAMAQ NEWS AGENCY / AFP) / THIS PICTURE W

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Asia

South Asia

Suicide bombers targeted three hotels and three churches, killing 279 people and wounding about 500. The trial has gone on for five years


Suicide bombers targeted three hotels and three churches, killing 279 people and wounding about 500. The trial has gone on for five years.


Sri Lanka bombings

Crime

Sri Lanka court convicts 15 over 2019 Easter bombings, 9 acquitted

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Suicide bombers targeted three hotels and three churches, killing 279 people and wounding about 500. The trial has gone on for five years

Suicide bombers targeted three hotels and three churches, killing 279 people and wounding about 500. The trial has gone on for five years