Former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara was on Friday sentenced to death by a majority decision of a three-judge bench of the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar after being found guilty over his failure to act on intelligence warnings ahead of the 2019 Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.
The court found Jayasundara guilty of criminal negligence, dereliction of duty and aiding and abetting deaths by failing to take preventive action despite receiving advance intelligence warnings of the planned attacks.
Jayasundara, who served as Sri Lanka’s 34th Inspector General of Police from April 2016 until he was sent on compulsory leave following the Easter Sunday attacks, was among the country’s most senior security officials at the time of the bombings.
He and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando were initially acquitted by the Trial-at-Bar in February 2022 without being called to present their defence. However, the Attorney General appealed the ruling, and the Supreme Court held that the acquittal was contrary to law, ordering the trial to continue.
On July 31, 2026, the Colombo Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar delivered its verdict, with a majority of the three-judge bench finding Jayasundara guilty on 854 of the 855 charges filed against him. He was sentenced to death after being convicted of criminal negligence, dereliction of duty and aiding and abetting deaths through his failure to act on intelligence warnings before the Easter Sunday attacks.
Delivering the judgment, the judge said that on the evening of April 20, 2019, then Director of the State Intelligence Service Nilantha Jayawardena had provided the accused with intelligence warning that suicide attacks were planned against Catholic churches and tourist hotels in Colombo and its suburbs on Easter Sunday.
However, despite receiving the intelligence, the accused failed to take any action to prevent the attacks.
“As the officer appointed by the State to prevent crime, he failed in his duty,” the judge observed while delivering the verdict.
One judge dissented, ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Easter Sunday terrorist attacks on April 21, 2019, targeted churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka, killing more than 260 people and injuring hundreds, making it one of the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.
The case against former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, who was also indicted over the alleged failure to prevent the attacks, remains before the court. (Newswire)
