2019 Sri Lanka attacks: Former President Sirisena found guilty of negligence
Former Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena in Colombo in 2019 while in office.
AP - Eranga Jayawardena
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
This is a first in the history of Sri Lanka.
The Supreme Court has found former President Sirisena guilty of failing to thwart the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, the country's worst terrorist attack since the end of the civil war, which left 279 people dead.
Maithripala Sirisena will have to pay 100 million rupees to the families of the victims.
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On April 21, 2019, three churches and three luxury hotels in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa were targeted in a series of coordinated suicide attacks.
Result: 279 dead and nearly 500 injured.
Two days later, the attacks are claimed by the Islamic State organization.
However, as of April 4, the Sri Lankan intelligence services are warned by the Indian services.
Local Muslim groups are also warning police and intelligence of an impending attack by a local Islamist group.
But the authorities fail to identify the brains.
More than three years later, a panel of seven judges of the Supreme Court, seized by families of victims, recognizes the former president guilty of negligence and of not having taken measures to prevent the terrorist attack.
Maithripala Sirisena will have to pay the families more than 250,000 euros in compensation.
Found guilty of multiple flaws that led to the deaths of hundreds of people, the former police, intelligence and defense chiefs were also ordered to compensate the families.
►Read again: Sri Lanka wakes up in shock the day after a series of attacks
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Sri Lanka
Maithripala Sirisena
Terrorism
Justice