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# 15 Get 220-Year Terms in Easter Bombings Case; No Death Sentences Imposed
- URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/featured/15-get-220-year-terms-in-easter-bombings-case-no-death-sentences-imposed/
- Published: 2026-09-22T18:16:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T18:16:46.000Z
- Author: Our Reporter
- Tags: September 2026

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan court on Tuesday sentenced 15 people to 220 years of rigorous imprisonment each for their roles in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, more than seven years after suicide attackers struck churches and luxury hotels across the country.

The Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar, a three-judge bench made up of Judges Navaratne Marasinghe, Ramanathan Kannan and Sujeewa Nissanka, also ordered the state to confiscate all movable and immovable property belonging to the 15 convicted defendants. Nine others who stood trial were acquitted and ordered released.

None of the 15 was sentenced to death. In July, a separate Trial-at-Bar sentenced Pujith Jayasundara, who was inspector general of police at the time of the attacks, and Hemasiri Fernando, then the Defense Ministry secretary, to death after finding them guilty of murder and criminal negligence for failing to act on intelligence warnings of the attacks.

That verdict was a 2-to-1 decision, with one judge finding that the prosecution had not proved its case. Both men had been acquitted by a different bench in 2022 before the attorney general appealed. They can appeal their sentences to the Supreme Court. Sri Lanka has not carried out an execution since 1976.

Prosecutors in the case decided on Tuesday had indicted 24 people, among them Naufar Maulavi, on 23,270 charges, including conspiracy and aiding and abetting the attacks. The case was among the most closely watched terrorism trials in Sri Lanka since the end of the civil war.

On the morning of April 21, 2019, suicide bombers attacked three churches, in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa, and three luxury hotels in Colombo. More than 250 people were killed and hundreds more were wounded. The authorities blamed a local Islamist group, National Thowheed Jamath, and the Islamic State later claimed responsibility.

The bombings set off a national security crisis and led to criminal investigations, presidential and parliamentary inquiries, and lawsuits over the government's handling of intelligence warnings it received before the attacks.

In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that former President Maithripala Sirisena and several former senior security officials had violated the fundamental rights of the victims by failing to take adequate steps to prevent the attacks despite the warnings, and ordered them to pay compensation.

The bombings were the deadliest act of terrorism in Sri Lanka since the civil war ended in 2009.