COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan prosecutors told a court on Tuesday that military intelligence officers had detailed information about the Islamist group behind the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings months before the attacks but did not pass it to the police, and that investigators were examining whether the information had been deliberately withheld.
Dileepa Peiris, an additional solicitor general, made the allegations before the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court in the case of Suresh Sallay, a retired major general and former director of the State Intelligence Service. General Sallay is being held under a detention order issued under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in connection with the investigation.
None of the allegations have been proved. Shavindra Fernando, a senior lawyer representing General Sallay, told the court that claims contained in investigators' progress reports, known in Sri Lanka as B reports, did not amount to evidence.
The coordinated suicide bombings on April 21, 2019, struck three churches and three luxury hotels and killed nearly 270 people, the deadliest attack in Sri Lanka since the end of its civil war a decade earlier. How the attackers were able to operate despite repeated warnings, including from Indian intelligence, has been the subject of a presidential commission, a parliamentary inquiry and years of litigation.
Mr. Peiris told the court that investigators had recorded a statement from a former informant of military intelligence who had supplied information about Zahran Hashim, the leader of the National Thowheed Jamath, the group blamed for the bombings, and about his associates.
According to the prosecution, the informant had identified Mr. Zahran's group as responsible for the killing of two police officers at a checkpoint in Vavunathivu, in eastern Sri Lanka, in November 2018. Investigators at the time pursued former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and a former Tamil Tiger fighter was arrested in the case.
Mr. Peiris said military intelligence had information pointing to Mr. Zahran's network soon after the killings, but that it did not reach criminal investigators until shortly before the Easter attacks. He argued that this gave grounds to investigate whether intelligence officers had deliberately steered the Vavunathivu inquiry away from the group and shielded its members.
Investigators are also examining intelligence about Mr. Zahran's travel by sea between Sri Lanka and India, the prosecutor said. He told the court that a businessman from Mannar, in the country's north, identified as Alavudeen, had helped arrange those journeys. The court was told that Mr. Alavudeen is the father-in-law of Inshaf Ahmed Ibrahim, the suicide bomber who attacked the Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo.
The prosecution also alleged that Mr. Zahran had benefited from political protection linked to Rishad Bathiudeen, a former cabinet minister. Mr. Bathiudeen has denied the accusation and has said he never met Mr. Zahran.
Mr. Peiris said investigators were separately examining the events at Sainthamaruthu, in eastern Sri Lanka, where at least 15 people, including six children, died on April 26, 2019, when suspected members of Mr. Zahran's group set off explosives during a raid by security forces. He said the inquiry included whether members of the security forces had helped bring about circumstances intended to keep information about the wider network from emerging.
The hearing is the latest in a series in which prosecutors have made far-reaching claims against General Sallay. In April and May, Mr. Peiris told the same court that General Sallay had been the principal force behind the attacks. Those allegations rest in part on a statement investigators recorded in France from Hanzeer Azad Maulana, a former aide to the politician Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, who first made the accusations in a 2023 Channel 4 documentary.
General Sallay has repeatedly denied any contact with Mr. Zahran or his group. He has said he was posted to the Sri Lankan High Commission in Malaysia during the period when Mr. Maulana says a meeting took place. A committee appointed by the previous government concluded in 2024 that the documentary's allegations were unproved.
Much of Tuesday's hearing concerned General Sallay's health. He was transferred from the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department to the National Hospital in Colombo on the night of June 7, after his condition deteriorated during what was reported to be a hunger strike over alleged mistreatment in detention. Mr. Peiris told the court that the 100 days General Sallay had spent as an inpatient were obstructing the investigation, and asked the court to establish whether he still required hospital treatment.
Magistrate Pasan Amarasena ordered the director of the National Hospital to appear on Sept. 22 to explain why medical reports the court had previously requested, including reports sought by a five-member medical board it appointed, had not been submitted.
The court also barred a former police inspector who had served with the State Intelligence Service from leaving the country after prosecutors said investigators needed to question him.
The case was adjourned until Sept. 22.
