A Sri Lankan court was set to deliver its verdict Tuesday in the trial of 24 men accused of involvement in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, as authorities pursue a separate investigation into allegations that elements of the state had links to those behind the attacks.
The coordinated suicide bombings on April 21, 2019, struck three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 279 people, including 45 foreigners.
Investigators blamed the attacks, the deadliest against civilians in Sri Lanka’s history, on a homegrown Islamist extremist group.
Twenty-five men were indicted over alleged involvement in the bombings. One died in custody, leaving 24 defendants before the High Court of Colombo.
According to Agence France-Presse, police will impose special security measures around the court complex ahead of the verdict.
“Considering the interest in this case, we are making special security arrangements,” police said in a statement.
Any convictions and sentences would be the first for direct involvement in the attacks.
Prosecutors filed 23,270 charges in the case, the highest number ever brought in a single trial in Sri Lanka. The charges include murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism and possession of firearms and explosives under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Prosecutors identified Mohamed Naufar as the alleged ringleader who provided support to the eight-member suicide squad that carried out the bombings. All defendants have denied involvement.
Local media reported that some defendants could face the death penalty if convicted. Sri Lanka has not carried out an execution since 1976, and capital punishment is typically commuted to life imprisonment.
The prospect of the death penalty drew renewed attention in July after two security officials were sentenced to death in a separate case for failing to prevent the attacks despite intelligence warnings.
The trial has unfolded alongside a separate investigation into allegations that elements within the Sri Lankan state may have had links to those responsible for the bombings.
Former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay is in custody over accusations that he orchestrated the attacks. He has denied the allegations.
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told parliament in June that investigators believed Sallay was the “mastermind” behind the attacks and had worked with Islamist extremists before the bombings.
According to court filings, investigators allege that the network was cultivated to manufacture a security threat that would bolster political support for the Rajapaksa family.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former defense chief, was elected president several months after the attacks.
Investigators believe the alleged objective was to create chaos and present Rajapaksa, credited by supporters with crushing Tamil separatist rebels in 2009, as the leader best placed to restore security.
The Rajapaksa camp has rejected allegations of state involvement.
Successive Rajapaksa administrations have acknowledged using Islamist militants as intelligence assets during Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, which ended in 2009. Supporters maintain that the militants later turned against their handlers and carried out the 2019 attacks independently.
Three defendants currently in Sri Lankan custody were also charged by U.S. authorities in December 2020 with terrorism-related offenses linked to the bombings.
Five Americans were among those killed, including a U.S. Commerce Department employee who was in Colombo on official business.
Other foreign victims were citizens of Australia, Bangladesh, China, Denmark, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Britain.
