21 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Thousands of people took to the streets of the main cities of Sri Lanka this Friday, with the capital, Colombo, at the forefront, shouting for justice for the families and relatives of the victims of the wave of Easter attacks four years ago. years in the country, which resulted in 269 deaths and more than 500 injuries.
The attacks occurred on April 21, 2019 and were directed against three churches (two Catholic, one Protestant) and three hotels in the country and their responsibility was claimed by two Muslim terrorist groups, allegedly affiliated with the Islamic State jihadist organization. However, despite dozens of charges against individuals allegedly connected to the attacks, no one has been convicted or sentenced for the attacks.
The most notable sentence so far was the one handed down in January by the country’s Supreme Court against former President Maithripala Sirisena and his security leadership, who were found guilty of negligence in their duties for failing in their duty to prevent the attacks.
The former president must pay the families of the victims, as compensation, a total of approximately 250,000 euros, according to the Supreme Court ruling, which points to the former Police Inspector General Pujith Jayasundara, the former director of the Intelligence services Nilantha Jayawardhane, the former Defense Minister Hemasiri Fernando and the former head of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis.
For the country’s Catholic Church, extremely critical of the subsequent government investigation, these sentences are insufficient. “We need a new and transparent investigation that clarifies why nobody took seriously the constant warnings about a possible attack,” the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, lamented this Friday during his homily.
“It seems quite clear that we cannot expect justice from the current president or the government,” he added in statements reported by the ‘Daily Mirror’, after a night vigil led by thousands of faithful in the city of Negombo, north of the capital, scene of the bloodiest attack of all, the one that occurred in the church of San Sebastián, which resulted in more than a hundred deaths.
