On 22nd September 2026 on Tuesday, a high court in Sri Lanka convicted 15 persons due to their involvement in the Easter Sunday Bombings of 2019 which occurred in Sri Lanka in which 260 people were killed and around 500 others injured.
The other nine persons involved in this case were cleared of all the charges against them. It is a highly awaited justice in regards to one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s history although the fact remains that the culprits themselves had died and thus couldn’t be brought to trial.
The attacks that have been planned in such an organized manner took place on 21 April 2019, when churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka were attacked during the time of Easter celebrations.
The total number of deaths that happened because of these attacks, according to court records, is above 260 deaths, which includes 42-45 foreign citizens, according to the same sources. Over 500 people got injured as a result of these terrorist attacks. This is the deadliest attack that took place in Sri Lanka after the end of their civil war in 2009.
The attack was inspired by ISIS, and all the participants in this plot belong to the Muslim minority group of Sri Lanka.
Naufer Moulavi, the accused, was handed a death penalty because he was identified as being behind the attacks.
Given the fact that the people responsible for the bombing lost their lives due to the blasts, it is evident that the other 15 people found guilty were involved in planning or financing the attack.
The scale of the prosecution is an indicator of the gravity with which the authorities in Sri Lanka viewed the situation following the bombings. In 2021, over 23,000 charges were brought against 24 individuals suspected of organizing or instigating the bombing.
These charges ranged from murder, terrorist conspiracy, and crimes involving firearms and explosives that were investigated using the Prevention of Terrorism Act in Sri Lanka. One of the accused died in detention while the trial was ongoing, leaving 24 men to be judged by the court – 15 were convicted, while 9 were acquitted.
The explosions took place over seven years ago, highlighting the lengthy time that it took for the process to conclude. The sheer size of the case, given that there were thousands of charges to be heard against the 24 defendants, made it necessary for the length of time between the explosions and Tuesday's decision.
There was heavy security at the High Court complex in Colombo prior to Tuesday's decision, with commando police present.
The Easter Sunday bombings are one of the most traumatic events in Sri Lanka’s recent past. Apart from the fatalities incurred during the incident, there were severe repercussions for the communities of the nation, including investigations into possible security lapses that led to the attacks in the first place, with contemporary reports indicating that Sri Lankan authorities had prior information about an attack but failed to act on it in time.
On another note, the attacks have affected the Sri Lankan economy, which relies heavily on tourism, especially in light of the fact that five out of the six targeted sites were hotels popular among tourists, as well as because it is a country trying to recover from the effects of a decade-long civil war.
Whereas Tuesday’s verdict deals with criminal responsibility for some of the alleged plotters, it still doesn’t give answers to the other questions that have remained outstanding since 2019, about why the attack occurred despite the possible warning beforehand.
It is also unclear, judging from the reports currently available, what sentences the 15 convicted men will get, and if there will be any of them or the nine acquitted who will appeal the court’s decisions.
However, sentencing of the 15 accused men is likely to happen soon, although the exact date has not yet been announced up until Tuesday. Due to the serious nature of the charges against the men, the sentences might be quite hefty, although it would still depend on how Sri Lankan courts would impose appropriate sentences on the different people involved.
It would also be interesting whether any of the acquited defendants will undergo separate trials or whether their acquittal on Tuesday will lead to any new investigations into the intelligence blunder that happened prior to the attack of 2019.
