Sri Lankan HC clears police, defence chiefs over Easter bombings
The Hindu
They allegedly failed to act on Indian warnings that local jihadists were planning suicide bombings in April 2019
Sri Lanka's High Court on Friday acquitted two top officials accused of "crimes against humanity" for failing to prevent the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people.
The state had indicted the two men in November for failing to act on early warnings from an Indian intelligence agency that local jihadists were planning a string of suicide bombings in April 2019.
The three-judge panel dismissed all 855 charges against Hemasiri Fernando, then secretary to the ministry of defence, as well as then inspector general of police Pujith Jayasundara.
A court official said the judges in a unanimous decision exonerated the suspects and released them without calling defence witnesses.
The attacks, blamed on a homegrown Islamic extremist group, targeted three churches and three hotels in the capital and killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners, leaving more than 500 wounded.
Fernando and Jayasundara were arrested in 2019 and held in custody for four months before being released on bail.
Jayasundara was the most senior police official to be arrested in the 155-year history of the force.
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