Sri Lanka’s Easter bombing verdict is reshaping politics and power

On 21 April 2019, Easter Sunday, the National Thowheeth Jamath, an Islamist militant group, carried out a series of attacks targeting churches and hotels in Sri Lanka. A total of 269 people were killed and more than 500 were injured. From the beginning, there were accusations of negligence from the highest echelons of the political and security establishment, and a number of petitions alleging fundamental-rights violations were filed against heads of the government and intelligence services.

The Sri Lankan Supreme Court considered 12 fundamental-rights petitions and concluded that the respondents – who included former President Maithripala Sirisena, former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis – did not act on intelligence received about the imminent attack with the seriousness it deserved. The court also expressed its "shock and dismay at the deplorable want of oversight and inaction that we have seen in the conduct of affairs pertaining to Security, Law and Order and Intelligence." It is important to note that President Ranil Wickremesinghe – the prime minister at the time of the attack – was named as a defendant in all the cases but removed as a defendant in July 2022 as he holds the position of executive president and so has immunity from prosecution.