Sri Lanka ex-police chief to appeal Easter bombings death sentence

Colombo,UPDATED: Aug 1, 2026 19:16 IST

Sri Lanka's former police chief Pujith Jayasundera will appeal against the death sentence handed to him a day earlier over the 2019 Easter bombings, his lawyer said on Saturday. Jayasundera and Hemasiri Fernando, the then top bureaucrat in the Ministry of Defence, were sentenced to death on Friday after being found guilty of criminal dereliction of duty for failing to act on prior intelligence that could have prevented the attacks.

The Easter bombings were a series of coordinated suicide attacks on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on April 19, 2019. The attacks killed 279 people, including 45 foreigners.

After the sentencing, Jayasundera and Fernando were taken to the main Welikada jail in Colombo. Jayasundera's lawyer, Rohan Dehiwela, told reporters that he visited the former police chief in jail on Saturday morning and held a consultation with him. "We are planning to appeal to the Supreme Court next week," Dehiwela said.

Jayasundera was the police chief between 2016 and 2019 until he was arrested in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Fernando was also arrested in 2019. Both were remanded for over four months before being granted bail in 2023.

They were indicted in November 2021 over negligence linked to prior intelligence from Indian agencies that local jihadists were planning an attack. However, in February 2022, the High Court acquitted the two men and dismissed all 855 charges against them. In November 2024, the case was revived after a Supreme Court order following an appeal by the attorney general against the High Court acquittal. The attorney general said no defence witnesses were called at the previous hearing.

Sri Lanka currently does not carry out capital punishment and has also become a party to the UN moratorium on the death penalty. The country's last hanging took place in 1976, 50 years ago.

With PTI Inputs

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