Former President Maithripala Sirisena

Former Defence Sec. Hemasiri Fernando

Former IGP Pujith Jayasundara

Former CID Director Sisira Jayakodi

Senior DIG Admin. Police Nilantha Jayawardena

• In landmark ruling 7-judge bench of Supreme Court orders ex-President Maithripala Sirisena to pay Rs. 100 m to Easter Sunday attack victims
• Sirisena and other respondents were found guilty of failing to prevent the attack
• Historic ruling sees a head of state held responsible for the first time for failing to prevent a terror attack 
• Six respondents including former IGP and ex-SIS Chief must now pay Rs. 311 m relevant compensation into a victim fund to be disbursed among victims and families
• Court orders compensation be paid from their private funds 
• State was instructed to initiate disciplinary action against ex-SIS Chief who is still serving in the Sri Lanka Police 

By Maneshka Borham

Sri Lanka’s apex court yesterday ordered former President Maithripala Sirisena and five other parties to pay millions of rupees in compensation to victims of the Easter Sunday terror attack for failing to prevent the bloodshed which took place on 21 April 2019. 

In its verdict, the seven-member Bench of the Supreme Court including Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya delivered the landmark ruling and said that the respondents named in the 13 petitions filed had failed to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks and had therefore violated the Fundamental Rights of the petitioners.

The court said the respondents had failed to prevent the terrorist attack despite receiving intelligence information and had also not acted on prior information received. The court ordered the former President, other respondents and the State to pay compensation totalling Rs. 311 million to victims of the bombings that resulted in the deaths of 269 people.

Accordingly, Sirisena was ordered to pay Rs. 100 million as compensation while former IGP Pujith Jayasundara and ex-SIS Chief Senior DIG Nilantha Jayawardena were instructed to pay Rs. 75 million each. 

Others named in the judgement were former Secretary of Defence Hemasiri Fernando and former Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis who was ordered to pay Rs. 50 million and Rs. 10 million respectively. The State was also ordered to pay Rs. 1 million. 

The court said the individuals must pay the compensation from private funds into a victim fund established by the Office for Reparations. The office was instructed to formulate a scheme to award compensation in a fair and equitable manner to victims and their families. 

The seven-judge bench was headed by Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya and composed of Justices Buwaneka Aluwihare, L.T.B. Dehideniya, Murdu Fernando, S. Thurairajah, A.H.M.D. Navaz and Shiran Guneratne. 

The FR petitions were filed by 12 parties including the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), three Catholic priests, Nandana Sirimanna – a father who lost two children in the attack, businessman Jagath S. Vithanage, journalist Kasun Pussawela and several others.

The petitioners accused the respondents of failing to prevent the Easter Sunday attack despite receiving intelligence reports giving them a prior warning of an impending attack by a group of Islamic extremists. The petitioners, therefore, sought an order from the courts for legal action to be initiated against them for their negligence and dereliction of duty. 

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