Sri Lanka’s top court has initiated contempt proceedings against a former intelligence officer after he failed to pay full compensation to the victims of the deadly 2019 Easter Sunday attack. Source: UCA News.
A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Friday asked Nilantha Jayawardena, the former director of State Intelligence Service (SIS), to appear in court on October 7.
Mr Jayawardena was asked to pay 75 million rupees ($A365,702) as compensation to the Easter attack victims, but his lawyer informed the court that he has so far paid 10 million rupees ($48,760).
The Supreme Court, after hearing 13 petitions filed by victims and their families in January 2023, ordered politicians and government officials, including former president Maithripala Srisena, to pay a hefty fine for their failure to prevent the attacks despite prior intelligence input.
Mr Srisena, who also held the office of minister of defence, paid the 100 million rupee ($487,582) fine imposed on him. Three other officials also paid the fines imposed on them.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo is a petitioner in the case seeking compensation.
The petitions seek compensation from the politicians and officials, citing their negligence in preventing one of the worst terror strikes in the island nation despite having credible information of an imminent attack.
Nine suicide bombers belonging to local Islamist group National Thawheed Jamaat, which is linked to ISIS, carried out a series of deadly blasts at three Catholic churches and three luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing 279 people, including foreigners, and injuring more than 500 people.
The latest hearing of the case came in the wake of the new government’s promise to launch a fresh probe into the terror attack after Church officials said the probes so far did not reveal the political conspiracy behind the crime.
After assuming office, new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake called on Cardinal Ranjith on September 23.
Later, Cardinal Ranjith told reporters that the president assured a thorough probe into Easter Sunday attacks.
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Sri Lankan court firm on compensation to Easter attack victims (By Rubatheesan Sandran, UCA News)
