A Sri Lankan court has convicted 15 men for helping to organise the 2019 Easter bombings on churches and hotels that killed 267 people, sentencing them each to at least 200 years in prison after a trial that lasted more than five years.
Another nine men were freed after being acquitted of similar charges in the same trial.
The April 21 attacks, which were inspired by the Islamic State (IS) group, were among the deadliest attacks in Sri Lanka’s history.
They targeted three churches and three hotels across the island nation during Easter services and celebrations.
The dead included 42 foreigners, and the attacks also wounded 574 people and devastated communities across the country.
The verdict was delivered amid tight security, with hundreds of police officers deployed around the courthouse.
The three-judge High Court panel also ordered the property of the defendants confiscated under the country’s tough anti-terror law.
None of those believed to have directly participated in the attacks are alive, but authorities filed 23,270 charges in 2021 against 25 suspects accused of planning or inspiring the attacks.
The charges included murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism, and firearms and explosives offences under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
One of the men charged died before the trial concluded.
Prosecutors said the defendants were part of a well-planned attack carried out with the intention of killing Christian worshippers and tourists.
They said the court has seen a video recorded the day before the bombings in which attackers with covered faces pledged allegiance to then-IS leader Abu Bakhr al-Baghdadi.
They said one of the defendants had travelled to Syria and fought for the IS group.
In the courtroom, the accused appeared relaxed, chatting and laughing with one another during breaks.
Seven of the defendants who did not have attorneys spoke for themselves during the sentencing hearing.
Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Naufer, who is a cleric who prosecutors said inspired the attacks with radical preaching, refused to ask for leniency.
“No religious leader should plead with (secular) authorities over any matter. Therefore, I do not wish to state anything,” said Naufer.
He was sentenced to 220 years in prison with hard labour.
“What I did or didn’t do, only God and I know,” said Mohamed Ibrahim Saadiq Abdulla.
“In the end, all people will be resurrected and God will judge everyone.”
He was given 240 years in prison with hard labour.
Nine defendants were freed after the court found that the charges against them were not proven.
Those freed tearfully hugged the rest as they were separated from the convicts.
Of the remaining defendants, five were sentenced to 200 years, four to 220 years, three to 240 years each and one to 260 years, based on their involvement in conspiring and aiding the attacks.
The convicts have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The bombings shook the island nation and revived memories of the 26-year conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, widely known as the Tamil Tigers, a separatist group that fought to establish an independent state for Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamil minority and was known for bombing public places.
After the bombings, allegations emerged that the attackers had links to Sri Lanka’s state intelligence services.
The country’s Defence Ministry denied any involvement, but a parliamentary committee found that police and intelligence officials failed to act on repeated intelligence warnings of the attacks.
In February, police arrested Suresh Salley, a former intelligence chief and retired army major general, on accusations that he had prior knowledge of the attacks and conspired to carry them out.
In July, a former police chief and a former senior defence ministry official were sentenced to death for failing to act promptly on foreign intelligence warnings of possible attacks.
Sri Lanka has not carried out executions since 1976, meaning death sentences typically result in life imprisonment.
Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church has claimed, without providing evidence, that those identified so far as perpetrators are not the masterminds behind the bombings, and that there was a bigger conspiracy behind the attacks.
Two of the three churches attacked belonged to the Catholic Church, and a majority of those who died were Catholic believers.
The third was a Protestant church.
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Colombo, Rev Jude Chrishantha Fernando told reporters outside the court that the church was satisfied with the sentence and that it would deter future attacks.
“We are happy – at least with this judgement, we know that in the future this type of crime will not take place in our country,” Fernando said.
However, he added that “these suicide bombers are not isolated people. They were used for another purpose: to take power.” — AP
