Ex-security chiefs to appeal against death penalty over Sri Lanka bombings

Two high-ranking former Sri Lankan security officials, sentenced to death for their alleged failure to prevent the deadly 2019 Easter bombings, plan to appeal their convictions. Their lawyer confirmed the decision on August 1.

Hemasiri Fernando, former defense ministry secretary, and Pujith Jayasundara, former police inspector-general, received the death sentence on July 31 from a three-judge panel at the Colombo High Court. The ruling was split, with one judge dissenting.

The coordinated attacks on April 21, 2019, targeted three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 279 people, including 45 foreign nationals, and injuring more than 500. The bombings were blamed on homegrown Islamist extremists.

Lawyer Chaminda Athukorale stated that the appeal would be filed in the Supreme Court within two weeks. He pointed to the dissenting judgment, arguing it highlighted the lack of motive and connection between the convicted officials and the actual perpetrators of the bombings.

Sri Lanka has not carried out an execution since 1976, maintaining an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment. Sentences are typically commuted to life imprisonment. Fernando, 76, and Jayasundara, 66, are currently held in a maximum-security prison in Colombo. They were previously discharged in February 2022 by another High Court ruling due to insufficient evidence for murder charges, but a state appeal led to the retrial and subsequent sentencing.

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The dissenting judgment explains why the two accused had no motive to kill and no links with the actual perpetrators of the bombings.