Sri Lanka court jails 15 for 2019 Easter bombings

The convictions are the first directly tied to the attacks on three churches and three hotels that killed 279 people.

A three-judge bench in Colombo delivered the verdict on September 22 after a nearly five-year trial involving 23,270 charges, LiCAS.news reported. Fourteen defendants were convicted on all counts, including murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism and possession of firearms and explosives under the Sri Lankan Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Nine were acquitted, while a 15th was convicted on some counts. The court also ordered the confiscation of the convicts’ property.

One defendant received a sentence of 260 years, four received 240 years, five received 220 years and five received 200 years, according to a report by the Sri Lanka Mirror. Prosecutors identified Mohamed Naufar, an Islamist preacher, as the ringleader who supported the suicide bombers; he was sentenced to 220 years.

In 2025, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints added the 167 Catholics killed in the bombings to its list of “Witnesses of Faith”.

Fr Jude Krishantha Fernando, director of mass communications for the Archdiocese of Colombo, welcomed the ruling but said those convicted “represented only one part of the case”, Newswire reported. He also called for scrutiny of whether intelligence and security officials had enough information to prevent the attacks.

“Finally, we have justice,” Fr Fernando told Agence France-Presse. “It has taken a long time to get to this point.”

In July, former police chief Pujith Jayasundara and former defence secretary Hemasiri Fernando were sentenced to death for failing to act on intelligence warnings. In August, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo said the Church “cannot support capital punishment because it violates human dignity”.

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Sri Lanka court jails 15 over 2019 Easter Sunday bombings of churches and hotels (EWTN News)