Sentenced in early 2023 along with leaders of the police and law enforcement, the former president – who held office during the 2019 Colombo massacres – has paid the first tranche of the fine he owes. Relatives of the dead and survivors, however, have only received Rs 28 of the Rs 311 million stipulated by the court.
Colombo (Asia News) – Former President Maithripala Sirisena has paid the first installment – of 15 million rupees (more than 43 thousand euros) – of the compensation he owes to the victims of the 2019 Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. According to the sentence of the judges of the Colombo court, Sirisena was guilty of “negligence in the performance of his duties” while serving as president and defense minister at the time of the events. From here derives the decision to sentence him to pay compensation of 100 million rupees (about 250,000 euros) under article 298 of the country’s Penal Code.
The terrorist attacks on April 21, four years ago, affected three churches, four hotels and a residential complex. The perpetrators were, according to local authorities, 7 Sri Lankans associated with the national jihadist organization Thowteeth Jama’ath. There were 269 victims and more than 500 people were injured.
At the beginning of 2023, the Supreme Court ordered the then high officials of the State to compensate the victims of the 2019 Easter attacks, since it considered them responsible for negligence in the face of warnings that spoke of an imminent terrorist attack. The order was addressed not only to former President Sirisena, but also to former Police Inspector General Pujith Jayasundara, former Defense Minister Hemasiri Fernando, and former directors of the security services Nilantha Jayawardena and Sisira Mendis, all of whom were found guilty of not have prevented the massacre.
Specifically, the Supreme Court sentenced the former president to pay a sum of 100 million rupees, the police chief and the former director of foreign intelligence services will have to pay 75 million rupees (188 thousand euros), the former minister Defense 50 million rupees (125 thousand euros); and the former director of the internal security services, 10 million rupees (25 thousand euros).
At the request of the Supreme Court, before the July 12 deadline expired, Sirisena paid the first tranche of compensation. Taking advantage of the occasion, his lawyers filed a request to be allowed to pay the remaining sum -85 million rupees- in 10 installments to be paid between June 30, 2024 and June 20, 2033. The former president receives from the state coffers a pension of 97,500 rupees per year as a former president, and a sum of 54,285 rupees as a former parliamentarian. On this occasion, Maithripala Sirisena once again stated that he was unaware of the information in the hands of the Government about the organization of the attacks: “The Defense authorities had not informed me about a plot to perpetrate the attacks of April 21, 2019”, said.
Meanwhile, the Treasury has paid a sum of Rs 1 crore in compensation on behalf of the Government, the first payment of the total sum of Rs 311 crore imposed by the court as compensation to the relatives of the victims of the bombing. Easter. So far, the victims have only received 28 million rupees that must be distributed among the families of the dead and the injured.
