A court in Sri Lanka on Tuesday convicted 15 men on terrorism charges for their role in a series of suicide bombings on Easter Sunday 2019 that killed more than 300 people in three cities.
The Easter Sunday attacks, at three hotels and three churches, came as Sri Lanka was settling into peace, years after the end of a 26-year civil war. The government blamed the attacks on a local Islamist group inspired by the Islamic State, and the bombings were followed by a wave of anti-Muslim mob violence.
The 15 defendants were convicted of conspiracy and of aiding and abetting the suicide bombers, who were killed in the attacks. Late Tuesday evening, the men, who were convicted under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act, received sentences ranging from 200 years to 260 years in prison.
Nine other defendants were acquitted for what the court called insufficient evidence.
Sri Lanka’s tourism sector, which had seen a revival with the end of the war, was hit hard after the attacks. The three hotels that were targeted were among the most prominent and popular in Colombo, the capital. The victims came from more than a dozen countries, including people who were worshiping at Easter services.
The deadliest explosion was at St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, a Catholic church about 20 miles north of Colombo, where more than 100 were killed. At least 28 people were killed at the Zion Church in Batticaloa, on Sri Lanka’s eastern coast. St. Anthony’s Shrine, a Roman Catholic church in Colombo, was also attacked.
The majority of people in Sri Lanka are Buddhist, but the country has sizable minorities of Muslims, Christians and Hindus.
Some of the families of those who were killed were seated in a tent outside the court. Three Catholic priests were also present to hear the verdict in the trial, which went on for 547 days.
“What they have done shouldn’t be repeated,” said Father Dilan Perera, a priest from the archdiocese of Colombo. “Hope this judgment prevents others from doing the same.”
The government drew intense scrutiny for failing to stop the attacks. Indian intelligence officials warned their Sri Lankan counterparts of the attack just hours before the first bomb was detonated, but the Sri Lankans failed to act. It was the last in a series of unheeded alerts, including two intelligence memos that warned of attacks on churches, in the weeks leading up to the attacks.
In January 2023, the country’s top court ordered the former president, Maithripala Sirisena, who led the government from 2015 to 2019, and several of his top officials to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation to the families of those killed.
In July, two former senior officials, including a former defense secretary, Hemasiri Fernando, and a former inspector general of police, Pujith Jayasundara, were sentenced to death for failing to act on the intelligence warnings. The country has a moratorium on capital punishment, so their sentences are expected to be commuted.
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