The Colombo Special Trial-at-Bar will deliver its verdict on Tuesday (22 September) in the main case filed over the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, Hiru News reported.
The ruling will come from a three-member bench of Judges Navaratne Marasinghe, Sujeewa Nissanka and Ramanathan Kannan.
What is being decided
The Attorney General has charged 24 defendants, including Naufar Maulana, under 23,270 counts covering conspiracy and aiding and abetting the eight suicide bombers, among them Zahran Hashim, who carried out the coordinated bombings of churches and hotels on 21 April 2019.
During the trial the court accepted 10 confessions made by the accused as evidence, and 2,076 items were marked as exhibits — including concealed explosives, sharp weapons and firearms.
The attacks killed 269 people, among them close to 40 foreign tourists and 35 children, and injured a further 577.
This is not the case decided in July
The distinction matters, because the phrase “Easter Sunday verdict” has already been used this year for a different proceeding.
On 31 July, a separate Colombo Trial-at-Bar — a different bench — convicted former Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando of criminal dereliction of duty and sentenced both to death for failing to act on prior intelligence warnings. That case was about negligence by officials who did not stop the attacks.
Tuesday’s verdict concerns the opposite end of the case: the alleged planning and support network behind the bombers themselves. The two trials share a subject and nothing else — different defendants, different charges, different judges.
A parallel thread on Sallay
Separately, the Attorney General’s Department recently told the court that statements are expected from around 10 Opposition Members of Parliament who made claims in Parliament about the alleged involvement of former State Intelligence Service Director Major General Suresh Sallay in the attacks.
The department told the court it believes the MPs made those statements based on credible information — an unusually supportive characterisation of parliamentary allegations by the prosecuting authority. That inquiry is separate from Tuesday’s verdict and remains open.
Not reported
Hiru does not say how many of the 24 accused are in custody, whether all will be present for the verdict, what sentences the charges carry on conviction, or whether the court will deliver verdict and sentence on the same day. It does not name the other 23 defendants, break down the 23,270 counts, or say whose confessions the court admitted. The Archdiocese of Colombo’s stated opposition to the death penalty in these cases has not been revisited ahead of this ruling.
Seven years and five months after the bombings, this is the verdict on who is held responsible for carrying them out.
