Fifteen people, sentenced to over 200 years each in prison by a Sri Lankan court for their involvement in the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, will appeal their record jail sentences, a defence lawyer said on Wednesday (September 23, 2026). This comes a day after the court found 15 of the 24 accused guilty of involvement in the attacks which killed 279 people.
The fifteen accused have been sentenced to 220 years of rigorous imprisonment each by the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar. The three-judge High Court Trial-at-Bar comprising Judges Navaratne Marasinghe, Ramanathan Kannan and Sujeewa Nissanka on Tuesday (September 22, 2026) found that 14 of the accused were guilty on all charges, while a 15th defendant was found guilty of only some of the charges. The court also ordered the confiscation of their movable and immovable property by the State. Nine others were acquitted. In July, former Defence Ministry bureaucrat Hemasiri Fernando and former police chief Pujith Jayasundara were sentenced to death for failing to act on prior intelligence that could have prevented the attacks.
Defence Counsel Kneel Maddumage, who represented seven accused, said they would appeal the convictions as well as the record terms in the Supreme Court after receiving the relevant documents.
