The trial begins against 25 men over Easter bombs in Sri Lanka in 2019 | Sri Lanka attacked
The trial has begun against the 25 men accused of being behind the 2019 Easter bombing in Sri Lanka, which killed nearly 300 people when churches and luxury hotels were hit by Islamic suicide bombers.
The lengthy process of reaching a lawsuit after more than two years has been heavily criticized by the families of those killed and the Christian Church in Sri Lanka, which has accused the government of failing to take proper action against those responsible.
The suspects face over 23,000 charges in total, including conspiracy to murder, complicity in the attacks and collection of weapons and ammunition.
Lawyers involved in the trial in the capital Colombo warned that the sheer volume of charges and the thousands of witnesses listed in the case could mean it drags on for up to a decade. The case will be heard before a special panel of judges.
All eight suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on Easter Sunday at the three five-star hotels in Colombo and three Christian churches died in the explosions. However, their staff and relatives are accused of being involved in the planning and masterminding of the terrorist attacks, the worst in Sri Lanka’s recent history.
They include YM Ibrahim, father of two of the suicide bombers, Inshaf and Ilham Ibrahim, who was targeting two hotels in Colombo and Mohammad Naufer, a Sri Lankan national accused of links to Islamic State and mastermind of the attacks.
Several other members of the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), a home-grown extremist Islamic group believed to be behind the bombings, are also among the 25 standing trials.
The attacks, which took place on April 21, 2019, killed 269 people, including 45 foreign nationals. In the wake of the attacks, the country was declared a state of emergency for four months and hundreds of Muslims have since been arrested, including a Muslim member of parliament. But in recent months, senior members of the church have accused police and government of dragging their feet over taking the case to court.
A press release issued by the Archdiocese of Colombo in August said: “It is clear from this procedure that after such a long time the government has no interest in finding out the truth about the attack and they will cover it up and wash their hands.”
They accused the government, led by the powerful President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, of exploiting the Easter attacks to come to power in late 2019 on a mandate of security for Sri Lanka but not to live up to their promises.
The head of the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, said last week that the families of the victims were struggling to move forward while feeling that justice had not been served. “We are not here to take revenge on anyone, nor have we called for anyone’s blood. But we need justice,” he said. On Sunday, members of the Catholic community held large demonstrations calling for faster action.
Members of the Catholic community claim that they are now being harassed for their actions demanding justice. P. Cyril Gamini, director of the National Catholic Center for Social Communication, who has accused the authorities of aiding the attackers, was recently subjected to a three-day interrogation by Sri Lanka’s central intelligence department.
The trial is one of three that will be held in connection with the attacks. On Monday, the trial began against several senior officials accused of criminal negligence for not acting on intelligence that could have prevented the bombings.
Sri Lanka’s former police chief Pujith Jayasundera and former defense minister Hemasiri Fernando are among those who will stand trial, with Jayasundera alone facing a total of 855 charges.
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