COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A Sri Lankan court found 15 men guilty on Tuesday of involvement in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which killed more than 260 people and wounded about 500.
The April 21 attacks
targeted three churches and three hotels across the island nation during Easter services and celebrations. The Islamic State group-inspired bombings, among the deadliest in Sri Lanka’s history, killed 42 foreigners and devastated communities across the country.
In 2021, authorities filed 23,270 charges against 24 suspects accused of planning or inspiring the attacks. The charges included murder, conspiracy to commit terrorism and firearms and explosives offenses under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
None of those believed to have directly participated in the attacks are alive.
Sri Lanka has not carried out executions since 1976, meaning death sentences typically result in life imprisonment.
Two Sri Lanka-based Islamic militant groups were accused of carrying out the bombings.
Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church has claimed, without providing evidence, that those identified so far as perpetrators are not the masterminds behind the bombings, and that there was a bigger conspiracy behind the attacks.
In July, a former police chief and a former senior defense ministry official were also sentenced to death for failing to act promptly on foreign intelligence warnings of possible attacks.
