Criminal negligence for Easter Sunday attacks 

Last week the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court ordered former President Maithripala Sirisena to appear before it on 14 October with regard to an ongoing case concerning the Easter Sunday attacks in April 2019. The order came as a result of a plaint filed by a victim alongside the National Catholic Committee for Justice to Easter Sunday Attack Victims.

In January this year the Colombo District Court dismissed a request by former President Sirisena to nullify all the cases naming him as the first accused in the Easter Sunday attacks.

Three and a half years since the atrocity the Sri Lankan law enforcement authorities and the judiciary have failed to deliver justice to the victims. Recommendations issued by a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) looking into the matter have also not been implemented and the Government has not addressed the serious allegation of a well-orchestrated cover up.

There are clearly two groups of culprits in this crime. Firstly, there are those who perpetrated the crime and secondly those who were criminally negligent. Neither group has been brought to justice yet. Sirisena and his officials who ought to have acted having received credible intelligence but failed to do so must face justice and be answerable to their negligence.

In February 2021 the PCoI that had been appointed by Sirisena himself found enough evidence to hold the former president guilty of “criminal liability” for his part in the acts or omissions which resulted in the tragedy. The PCoI recommended that the Attorney General consider instituting criminal proceedings against the former President under any suitable provision in the Penal Code. The Commission also recommended that the AG consider initiating criminal proceedings against former IGP Pujith Jayasundera, former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, Senior DIG Nandana Munasinghe and DIG Deshabandu Tennekoon.

The report said that President Sirisena proceeded to India and then Singapore from 16 to 21 April 2019 without making an acting appointment for the posts of Defence Minister, this despite the information he possessed of a possible threat from the terrorists’ group. The PCoI also faulted then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for keeping neither Cabinet nor Parliament informed that he was being kept out of National Security Council meetings since October 2018. The report labelled Wickremesinghe’s excuse that he was not invited for the meetings as unacceptable, and also said that his lax approach toward Islamic extremism as Prime Minister was one of the primary reasons for the failure on the part of the Government to act against these groups.

On those who carried out the attacks, disturbing revelations have been made linking several State intelligence actors. Former Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Director SSP (Rtd) Shani Abeysekera filing a petition in the Supreme Court in February this year directly implied links between the Easter Sunday bombers and several state intelligence agencies. He also claims that there was serious interference by these agencies into the CID investigations into the terrorists’ group that orchestrated the crime.

The fact that former president Sirisena has been made a party to the magisterial investigation is a result of a plaint made by citizens rather than any prosecutorial action of the Attorney General. In that regard the AG’s Department has failed to bring either the perpetrators or those who were negligent starting from Sirisena to justice. As long as victims of this crime are denied justice the Easter Sunday attacks will remain yet another emblematic symbol of the abysmal failure of the criminal justice system of Sri Lanka.