Journal De Bruxelles - Sri Lanka hands 220-year jail terms to 15 convicted of Easter bombings

The three-judge bench found that 14 of the accused were guilty on all charges, including 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, but all were each handed 220-year sentences. Nine others were acquitted.

The court also ordered that all property and other assets of the convicts be confiscated.

The men had been were accused of aiding and abetting the suicide bombers who struck three luxury hotels and three churches on April 21, 2019. It was the worst terror attack against civilians in the history of the South Asian nation.

Local media had speculated that the convicts could face the death penalty, although Sri Lanka has not carried out an execution since 1976 and capital punishment is typically commuted to life imprisonment.

Sri Lanka's Roman Catholic Church welcomed the convictions, which came at the end of the five-year trial.

"Finally, we have justice," Catholic priest Jude Fernando told AFP. "It has taken a long time to get to this point."

Teresa Fernando, a survivor who suffered head injuries, said no one should have to endure what she had gone through.

"We came here today as victims of this attack to receive justice," she said. "Whatever the court says... we will bow our heads and accept it."

It was the first criminal prosecution directly linked to the coordinated bombings, though a former police chief and an ex-security chief were sentenced to death in July for criminal negligence after failing to prevent the attacks despite prior intelligence warnings.

All of the accused are from Sri Lanka's minority Muslim community. Twenty-five men were originally charged, but one defendant died in custody.

Investigators blamed the attack on a homegrown Islamist extremist group.

The trial had already made Sri Lankan legal history, with prosecutors filing 23,270 charges, the most ever brought in a single case. The suspects were prosecuted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Among those convicted on all charges was Mohamed Naufar, whom prosecutors identified as the ringleader who provided support to the eight-member suicide squad that carried out the bombings.

- 'Mastermind' spy boss -

Three of the defendants were also charged by US authorities with terrorism-related offences linked to the bombings in December 2020.

The dead included 45 foreigners, including citizens of Australia, Bangladesh, Britain, China, Denmark, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.

The trial has unfolded against the backdrop of a separate and highly sensitive investigation into allegations that elements within the Sri Lankan state may have had links to those responsible for the attacks.

Former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay is in custody facing accusations that he had been the mastermind who orchestrated the bombings -- allegations he denies.

Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told parliament in June that investigators believed he had worked with Islamist extremists before the bombings were carried out.

Investigators said the network was cultivated to manufacture a security threat that would in turn bolster political support for the Rajapaksa family, which returned to power several months after the attack with Gotabaya Rajapaksa's election as president.

According to court filings, investigators believed the objective was to create chaos and present Rajapaksa, a former defence chief, as the leader best placed to restore security.

Rajapaksa was credited by supporters with crushing Tamil separatist rebels in 2009 after a decades-long civil war.

The Rajapaksa family has dominated Sri Lankan politics for nearly two decades, but its camp has rejected allegations of state involvement in the bombings.

C.Bertrand--JdB