Fifteen of the 24 people accused of being directly involved in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka have been found guilty of charges including murder and conspiracy to commit terrorism. Here’s what the verdict says, how the legal case unfolded and what we know about whether the government failed to act on intelligence prior to the bombings taking place. The three-judge bench in Sri Lanka’s High Court has 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 of any charges related to aiding and abetting the suicide bombers. Twenty-five men were originally charged, but one defendant died in custody. Police had filed more than 23,000 charges against the suspects, all of whom denied involvement.
The presiding judge told the court that sentencing would be delivered later on Tuesday. Six almost simultaneous bombings struck churches and hotels on Easter Sunday in 2019, killing 279 people and marking the deadliest attacks in Sri Lanka since the end of its civil war in 2009. At least 450 people were injured, with officials in the aftermath blaming a local armed group for the suicide bombings.
Most of those killed were Sri Lankan and died in three churches where worshippers were attending Easter Sunday services. Three other bombings struck luxury hotels – the Cinnamon Grand, the Kingsbury and the Shangri-La – located in the heart of the capital, Colombo, killing at least 45, including foreign nationals. Among the dead were Japanese, Dutch, Chinese, British, US and Portuguese tourists.
All of the accused are from Sri Lanka’s minority Muslim community. The prosecution in the case, which opened in November 2021, named Naufer Moulavi as the main architect of the attacks. Moulavi had submitted what they said was a voluntary confession to the court in which he had admitted his role.
While the court accepted the confession, Moulavi later told the court that he had not been shown what he was signing, leading him to retract his statement and reject the allegations against him. Moulavi was ultimately one of the 14 found guilty of all charges by the court on Tuesday. During the trial, more than 2,300 people gave evidence for the prosecution.
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