COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan opposition lawmaker on Tuesday accused the Attorney General's Department of deliberately failing to prosecute former President Maithripala Sirisena and former State Intelligence Service Director Nilantha Jayawardena in the criminal case over the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, despite both having previously been found responsible by the Supreme Court for failing to prevent the attacks.
Speaking during a parliamentary debate on a supplementary appropriation bill, Mujibur Rahman, a member of the opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), questioned why the two officials were not named in the Trial-at-Bar proceedings that last week resulted in death sentences for former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando.
"The Attorney General's Department deliberately failed in its duty," Mr. Rahman told Parliament. "Two people who should have faced prosecution were left out of the case."
Mr. Rahman said the criminal case was based on the Wijith Malalgoda Committee Report, which he said had recommended legal action against 14 individuals. However, he said that indictments had been filed only against Mr. Jayasundara and Mr. Fernando.
He also referred to the Supreme Court's 2023 judgment in the victims' fundamental rights petition, which held that former President Sirisena, Mr. Jayasundara, former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, former Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis, and former State Intelligence Service Director Nilantha Jayawardena had violated the fundamental rights of the victims by failing to act on intelligence warnings before the attacks.
Mr. Rahman argued that the Attorney General's Department should have included Mr. Sirisena and Mr. Jayawardena in the criminal prosecution before the three-judge Trial-at-Bar.
"How can two individuals whom the Supreme Court found responsible be excluded from the criminal case?" he asked. "This amounts to a clear failure of duty by the Attorney General's Department."
He further noted that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Easter Sunday attacks had also recommended legal action against both Mr. Sirisena and Mr. Jayawardena.
Mr. Rahman argued that Mr. Sirisena, who was President and Defence Minister at the time of the attacks, exercised authority over the Defence Ministry and the armed forces and therefore could not evade responsibility for the failures identified by the commission and the Supreme Court.
He also called for investigators to identify and prosecute the principal masterminds behind the Easter Sunday bombings, saying criminal proceedings should be initiated against all those for whom sufficient evidence exists and who were identified in the commission's report.
"The victims deserve justice," he said. "Those identified by the evidence and by the commission as bearing responsibility must also be brought before the law."
The Attorney General's Department has not publicly responded to Mr. Rahman's allegations.
