COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando was sentenced to death on Friday after a special three-judge trial court found him guilty of failing to act on intelligence warnings ahead of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, becoming the second senior official to receive the death penalty in the landmark case.
The ruling by the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar came hours after the same court sentenced former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara to death over the attacks, which killed more than 260 people and injured hundreds.
The court found that Fernando, who served as Defence Secretary at the time of the bombings, had received advance intelligence warning of the planned attacks but failed to take the necessary steps to prevent them. He was convicted of dereliction of duty and abetting murder through his omission.
Speaking before the sentence was delivered, Fernando told the court that then-President Maithripala Sirisena had instructed authorities to arrest only himself and Mr. Jayasundara, despite legal advice to take action against a wider group of officials. He also alleged that the then Director of State Intelligence, Nilantha Jayawardena, had been a co-conspirator in the events surrounding the attacks.
Fernando, 76, and Jayasundara, 66, are expected to appeal their convictions before the Supreme Court.
The Easter Sunday suicide bombings, carried out on April 21, 2019, targeted churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka, killing more than 260 people, including dozens of foreign nationals, and injuring hundreds more. The attacks remain one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in the country's history.
