The Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar yesterday sentenced 15 people convicted over the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks to 220 years of rigorous imprisonment each, concluding the main case over Sri Lanka’s deadliest terrorist attack.
The court also ordered the confiscation of the movable and immovable assets of those convicted, effective from the commencement of their sentences.
The three-judge bench, comprising High Court Judges Navaratne Marasinghe, Ramanathan Kannan and Sujeewa Nissanka, unanimously found 15 of the 24 defendants guilty on 22 September, 2026. The remaining nine were acquitted and released.
The coordinated suicide bombings on 21 April, 2019 targeted three Catholic churches and three leading hotels, killing 269 people, including foreign nationals, and injuring more than 500 others, including children. The attacks were carried out by nine suicide bombers, among them National Thowheed Jama’ath member Zahran Hashim.
The Attorney General filed more than 23,270 charges against 25 individuals in 2019, including conspiracy, aiding and abetting the attacks, murder and offences involving firearms and explosives. The charges were brought under Sections 2(1)(h) and 2(2) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and related to conspiring to carry out the attacks, aiding and abetting them, promoting extremist ideologies and inciting discord among ethnic groups.
A total of 2,309 prosecution witnesses testified during evidentiary hearings that ran for several years and concluded on 24 August. The indictment comprised nine volumes and approximately 8,900 pages.
The court considered evidence on extremist lectures and weapons training conducted before the attacks, as well as the establishment and maintenance of training workshops and safe houses.
Presiding Judge Navaratne Marasinghe said that given the length of the judgment, only its most important points would be read in open court.
Explaining the court’s approach to establishing involvement in the conspiracy, Marasinghe said: ‘There is no requirement for those involved in a conspiracy to be gathered together in one place. A conspiracy or agreement can be direct or implied. Those who became involved at the beginning, midway or toward the end can all be parties to the conspiracy.’
The court rejected the defences of the first defendant, Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Naufar, alias Naufar Moulavi; the second defendant, Gafoor Maama; the third defendant, Hayaathu Mohamed Milhan; the fourth defendant, Mohamed Ibrahim Saadik Abdullah; the fifth defendant, Mohamed Ibrahim Sahid Abdullah; and 10 others.
The bench held that charges against the first to eleventh and the fifteenth to eighteenth defendants had been proved beyond reasonable doubt. It acquitted the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and twentieth to twenty-fifth defendants, ruling that the prosecution had failed to meet that standard.
Heavy security was deployed at the Hulftsdorp court complex ahead of the verdict, including the Police Special Task Force, sniffer dogs, a mobile CCTV unit and ambulances. Catholic priests were among those present when the bench began delivering the verdict at approximately 11.30 a.m.
The Attorney General filed indictments against Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed Nawfar alias Naufar Moulavi, Mohammed Saribu Adam Lebbe (Abu Hadik), Hayathu Mohammed Milhan (Abu Zillah), Mohammed Ibrahim Sadiq Abdullah (Abu Umar), Mohammed Ebrahim Abdul Haq (Abu Fala), Mohammad Anwar Mohammad Riskan (Abu Tariq), Mohammad Mansoor Mohammad Sanasdeen (Abu Misan), Abdul Manaf Mohammad Piridavus, Mohammad Ramish Mohammad Zarik, Abdul Latif Mohammad Safi (Safi Moulavi / Abu Furqan), Husseinul Rizvi Mohammad Kahir Samir, Mohammad Zawheer Mohammad Hassan (Abu Dawood), Mohammad Iftikhar Mohammad Insaf (Abu Mohammad), Rashid Mohamed Ibrahim, Mohammed Hanifa Zainul Abdin (Abu Hina), Mohamed Mustafa Mohamed Haris (Abu Nanjiar), Yassin Bawa Abdul Rauf, Rasik Raza Hussain, Kachchi Mohamed Jasmine, Zainul Abdeen Mohamed Jaseen, Mohamed Mustafa Mohamed Rizwan, Meera Saheed Mohamed Nafli (Abu Sana), Mohamed Amin Ayantullah, Mohamed Ansar Deen Hilmi and Mohamed Akram .